It’s the standout game of baseball’s Wild Card playoff series but fans were left furious as ESPN’s broadcast of New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox was blighted by issues on Tuesday night.
A strange and persistent crackling noise was consistent throughout the broadcast at Yankee Stadium from the moment Max Fried threw the first pitch.
The camera feed also took time to settle, with some viewers complaining about ‘choppy’ footage across the first two innings.
But the main issue was the crackling, which seemed to get worse as a rowdy Yankee Stadium got louder during the game against their fierce rivals.
‘Good grief ESPN get it together! This MLB broadcast is atrocious. I’m getting dizzy trying to watch this choppy feed, and your audio is broken. Sounds like static/crackling,’ one fan wrote on X.
Another said: ‘ESPN ’s baseball production is so bad now, camera quality is shoddy and their audio has been crackling.’
The New York Yankees began the postseason against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night
Anthony Volpe hit a home run in the bottom of the second inning to put the Yankees ahead
A different viewer complained: ‘As an aside, the broadcast of this game sucks so far. Weird crackling noises, and the picture is shaky.’
Anthony Volpe hit a home run for the Yankees in the bottom of the second off Garrett Crochet and the crackling sounded at its worst as the stadium erupted in celebration.
At the top of the fifth, ESPN also nearly missed the first ball of the inning pitched to Cody Bellinger. The cameras returned from their commercial just as Bellinger was midway through his swing, before grounding out.
Conicidentally, this year is the final year where ESPN has the first round of MLB playoffs. Next season, NBC and Peacock will be broadcasting this stage of the baseball season.
