McCarver’s call

The Phillies just scored in the bottom of the sixth, and Tim McCarver called it. Now, I’m not a big McCarver fan (though I thought he was great when he first started in the booth; so was Joe Morgan) but I have always given him bonus points for virtually “calling” Luis Gonzalez’s bloop single off Mariano Rivera in the 2001 World Series. One of the greatest calls in baseball broadcasting history.

He almost did the same thing tonight. With Grant Balfour on the mound, McCarver noted that Balfour is adept at inducing pop flies (not quite statistically true, but close enough) and just forgot to add the insight he had in the 2001 Series: that the infield was playing in. Iwamura couldn’t catch up to Werth’s pop fly in shallow center, and the Phillies took the lead, 3-2.

And Baldelli homers. 3-3.