Eckersley and Orsillo best of the broadcaster teams

It was 10-1 when I fell asleep in my chair Monday night. Tuesday morning, I discovered the final score was Red Sox 16, Yankees 1. At game’s end, the stands were practically empty. The same sort of thing happened in Cleveland, where the Astros buried the Indians, 11-3, earlier in the day. Well, you know the old saying: They all look like one-to-nothing in the standings.

The Indians season is finished, but the Yankees had at least one more game in their best-of-five series against the Sox and that was Tuesday night, well past my deadline but hopefully not my bedtime.

After a 15-run loss, it’s difficult to imagine how the Yankee players felt as they entered Game Four. They had dominated the Bostons the game before, when their powerful bats took over. Would they remember that? Or would the humiliation of Monday’s shellacking linger and hold them back? No telling until game time.

Whatever. Up to this time (Tuesday evening) people who care about baseball have been treated to excellence in both the regular season and the unique playoffs in which there had to be for the first time pre-playoff playoff games to decide the wild card teams to get into the playoffs. A dizzying bonus, I call it.

The good part, if you love baseball as some people do, is that there is a lot of it left, the two pennant clashes – Astros vs. Red Sox or Yankees in the AL and Brewers vs. Dodgers in the NL. Both will be best-of-seven series and will carry the baseball season to the end of November. I love it. No, really.

Many people in Cleveland and Houston were grousing because they thought the Yankee/Red Sox games were given superior time slots by the television schedulers. I say, well, maybe, because the two eastern teams were assigned night games. But those who realize that the rivalry is often spoken of as the most ardent one in sports, that it goes back many generations and that it appears never to get old, understand.

However, the Cleveland-Houston games enjoyed one glittering advantage — the announcers. Don Orsillo and Dennis Eckersley are as good a broadcast team as any producer ever put together. Orsillo, fans well remember, was fired by NESN after the 2015 season, causing considerable resentment and negative reaction from fans. People liked Don and enjoyed his work, with every good reason. But some were somewhat gratified when he hooked right on with the San Diego Padres, replacing Dick Enberg, who retired as Padres voice.

When Dave O’Brien moved into the TV booth to call the Red Sox games as lead man, it became obvious that most of the sting and unpleasantness had faded. No one does his job or his homework better

than O’Brien. Which brings us back to Eckersley. O’Brien and Eckersley are without question the best regular-season combination the Red Sox use. They use others, including Jerry Remy, Steve Lyons and Tim Wakefield, with O’Brien besides “Eck.’’ (Remy is currently on the sidelines,

fighting cancer.)

First off, they play well off each other. O’Brien is the complete broadcaster and obviously enjoys being the main guy. He’s comfortable. But the conversational Eckersley brings Hall of Fame credentials to the mike and combines his knowledge with the “Oh my gosh, did you see

that?” fan’s reaction to spectacular plays and rulings. It works beautifully.

In short, like O’Brien, he’s a guy a listener likes. But, of course, so is Don Orsillo. I hope the Eck-Orsillo tandem show up again, for our listening pleasure, during the pennant playoffs.