Fox knew their 2022 World Series coverage was going to be under added scrutiny without Joe Buck in the booth. But the network’s biggest broadcast blunder of the series ended up being a brutal scorebug gaffe.
The scorebug broke at the worst possible time during Game 6 of the World Series Saturday night as the Houston Astros were minutes away from beating the Philadelphia Phillies to win their second championship in franchise history.
With Houston leading Philadelphia 4-1, Astros closer Ryan Pressly was brought in to pitch the ninth inning. Before Pressly threw his first pitch, the Fox scorebug listed the count at 1-2 with two outs. Having a 1-2 count and two outs in the ninth inning of a World Series clinching game is very different from no outs and a 0-0 count.
Making matters worse, the first pitch from Pressly was a strike. It’s highly likely that there were some casual baseball fans watching from a sports bar who looked up to see Phillies batter Rhys Hoskins swing right through a pitch with a 1-2 count and two outs and believed the game was over. Those same fans were probably equally confused when the Astros reacted to what looked like a World Series clinching strike so casually.
Play-by-play voice Joe Davis did not acknowledge the scorebug error. Instead, Fox removed it from the screen one pitch too late. The scorebug reappeared two batters later, when Bryce Harper came up to the plate with one on and one out.
Throughout the rest of the ninth inning, the scorebug was operable. For casual Astros fans who were watching, but not totally paying attention, the gaffe may have allowed them to celebrate twice. Phillies fans, however, had to suffer through losing the World Series twice in the span of five minutes.
[Fox]
