ESPN’s ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ Broadcast Had Incredibly Awkward Moment

Andy Nesbitt | Jul 7, 2025

The ESPN broadcast messed up the count during this at-bat. / @ESPN

The Chicago Cubs blew out the rival St. Louis Cardinals, 11-0, Sunday night at Wrigley Field in a game that was all but over after the home team stretched its lead to double digits in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The end of that inning was a weird one for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast as the booth and the graphics department lost track of the count during Matt Shaw's at-bat. The third baseman swung and missed on what was strike three, which led to everyone leaving the field because it was the third out.

The ESPN broadcast, however, thought it was a 3-1 count and Karl Ravech & Co. were silent for an awkward amount of time before Ravech finally chimed in with: "Everybody’s coming off the field. I thought that was the second strike but apparently it’s strike three because both sides are in their dugouts."

Here's that moment:

The Sunday Night Baseball announcers didn't realize that this was Strike 3 and the end of the inning. pic.twitter.com/ytvxutoLht

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 7, 2025

That's not something you expect to see during a national broadcast at the professional level. With the game already out of hand, it seemed like maybe the ESPN crew checked out there for a second.

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