Diane Pucin’s live commentary on how Fox is handling the Angels-Yankees telecast

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As Joe Buck said...

It’s not a happy sight for Angels fans, seeing Mariano Rivera coming out of the bullpen. But even as Tim McCarver was telling us how Mariano is the best ever (and not to say he isn’t), Chone Figgins got a bloop single. And it is the top of the eighth, not the top of the ninth.

Vlad’s not going to like it

When Vlad Guerrero sees some replays he’s going to be very unhappy about some of these strike calls. Not that it will matter. So Guerrero hits a pitch that was almost in the dirt for a double instead of taking. Not a bad idea.

Rudy Giuliani rooting hard

The ex-NYC mayor has been zeroed in on a couple of times now with his face all mushed up in nervous joy/angst. Like him or not, boy, he’s a big-time Yankee fan.

McCarver says time for Saunders to go

Tim McCarver just said it might be time to take Angel pitcher Joe Saunders out because no where to put Alex Rodriguez. Saunders stays in. Already two balls and no strikes. A foul ball that should have been a home run. Then another ball, and then another. Joe Buck notes that Joe Saunders would like to know about that final pitch. Which sure looked like a strike. But, again, where is the pitch trax?

Wishing for more Fox Trax

Not that it’s infallible, but since Fox has the technology, would like to see more of the computerized pitch tracking especially on those last two pitches from Andy Pettitte to Vlad Guerrero. Analyst Tim McCarver notes it’s ‘unusual’ for Guerrero to get a called third strike against him.

Fox promoting Sunday Night Football?

Joe Buck just pointed out the Giants are leading Arizona 7-0 on SNF. It’s on over at NBC and SNF ratings have been through the roof. Interesting call, Buck mentioning the NFL game. Maybe he’s just trying to keep Yankee fans away from the football game.

And good call by Joe Buck

He was talking about how Angel catcher Jeff Mathis had been considered a better defensive catcher but that Mathis had become a good hitter when, boom, Mathis doubled.

Good call by McCarver

Tim McCarver noted that it wasn’t necessarily a mistake by Angels pitcher Joe Saunders to give up that walk to Derek Jeter that loaded the bases. ‘That’s one of those situations where it’s not a pitch-around situation,’ McCarver said, ‘but you’re not really upset that you walked Derek Jeter because you’ve got the left handed (Johnny) Damon up and because with two outs all the left-handed Saunders needs to do is get the left-handed hitter Damon.’ And then Damon grounded out to first.

Joe Saunders, free throw shooterFox analyst Tim McCarver said Angels pitcher Joe Saunders took deep breaths like basketball free throw shooter to help calm his possible Yankee Stadium nerves. Wonder if Saunders is a good foul shooter.

Not the Dodgers, that’s for sure

Angels owner Arte Moreno was just shown in the Yankee Stadium stands sitting next to his wife, Carole. Carole is not being fired by Arte for any reason we’re aware of. It’s refreshing.

Fox needs work on its ‘Keys to the Game’ graphic

For the Angels the key to the game, according to Fox is, ‘Trouble with hello is goodbye.’ Um, what? Apparently it has something to do with maybe not playing again at home according to analyst Tim McCarver. I hope Tim didn’t come up with that key. And for the Yankees, the key is, according to Fox, ‘Have CC ready for Game 1 of the World Series.’ But CC isn’t playing tonight. So how is he the key to this game?

Kiss of death?

On the Fox pregame show, both Eric Karros and Mark Grace just predicted the Angels would win Game 6. They are high on Joe Saunders and not so much on Andy Pettitte.

Get used to this

Lots of Fox promos for the Minnesota-Green Bay game next week.

Mile Penner’s live in-game report can be found here.