ESPN’s Karl Ravech declares ‘Dodgers win it by a run!’ after 4-3 loss to Phillies

The best thing about sports is that it comes with a scoreboard that cannot be disputed. Unless you’re ESPN’s Karl Ravech.

Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers played the second game of their three-game series on ESPN. And it resulted in a 4-3 win for the Phillies, their 60th victory of the season as play-by-play voice Karl Ravech noted on the broadcast.

“With the Phillies getting their 60th win…Dodgers win it by a run!” Whoops pic.twitter.com/8aS7JwBr2K

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 11, 2024

“The lifelong Philly fan got his chance to leave on a good note with the Phillies getting their 60th win,” Ravech said. Okay, no issue there. But before signing off from the broadcast he added, “Dodgers win it by a run!”

So, which was it? Did the Phillies get their 60th win? Or did the Dodgers win it by a run? Something’s gotta give. Luckily, ESPN’s scorebug was there to tell us the Phillies won it by a run.

Although, you can’t trust every ESPN graphic. They also put up a note promoting their next MLB broadcast between the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox coming up Sunday, June 21, even though it was already July 10. To be clear, that game will be airing July 21. Just an all-around strange ending for ESPN’s Wednesday night baseball broadcast.

Mistakes happen, like the time Ravech blew a home run call in the College World Series or implied Trea Turner was playing in his first postseason game, even though he already had 43 playoff games and a World Series ring on his resume. As far as mistakes go, this one was harmless. There probably weren’t any Dodgers fans tricked into believing their team beat the Phillies Wednesday night.

Ironically, this blunder occurred the same day that I made the argument sports can never become politics because there is a scoreboard we can all trust. In politics, no one agrees on a set of facts as a foundation for any discussion or debate. But in sports, everyone agrees on the facts, stats, and scores before having a debate. Well, apparently not everyone.

[ESPN]