Phillies likely looking at A-Rod in the TV booth for potential playoff series

HOUSTON — If the Philadelphia Phillies win the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League, Alex Rodriguez will be the color commentator for a best-of-three playoff series in St. Louis.

Michael Kay — the TV voice of the New York Yankees — will be the play-by-play announcer for the series, according to Rob Tornoe of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Kay has teamed up with Rodriguez on the “KayRod Cast” this year, an alternate Sunday Night Baseball telecast inspired by the success of Peyton and Eli Manning’s “Manningcast.”

The series — which would air on ESPN, ESPN 2 and ABC — would also include Alden Gonzalez as the dugout reporter. Game 1 would be Friday, Oct. 7 in St. Louis, with the two teams playing three games in as many days, if a series winner isn’t determined in the first two games.

Of course, the Phillies still need to clinch a trip to the postseason. The Phillies enter Monday with a magic number of one, meaning if they win any of their last three regular season games against the Astros, they’ll be in the postseason. A loss from the Milwaukee Brewers in any of their final three games — which will be played against the Arizona Diamondbacks — would also clinch a playoff berth for the Phillies.

The San Diego Padres have clinched a postseason trip, but not yet the No. 2 Wild Card spot. At 87-72, the Padres are a game up on the Phillies for the second Wild Card spot. So there’s still an outside chance the Phillies could leapfrog the Padres, in which case they would head to either New York or Atlanta for the Wild Card series, facing whichever of the two teams doesn’t win the NL East. That series will feature ESPN‘s Sunday Night Baseball booth of Karl Ravech, David Cone and Eduardo Pérez, per Andrew Marchand of The New York Post.

While Tom McCarthy and the local TV booth won’t be able to broadcast postseason games, Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen will call all postseason games on SportsRadio 94 WIP.

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