ESPN is producing an ‘alternate’ broadcast for the wild card game

ESPN is televising tonight’s National League wild card game between the Cubs and Rockies. Their usual Sunday Night Baseball announcing crew of Matt Vasgersian, Jessica Mendoza and Alex Rodriguez will be calling the game.

If you’d like a different feel and sound to the game tonight, ESPN is producing an “alternate” broadcast of the game which will be carried via ESPN2. It will be heavy on statistics, using data provided by Statcast. White Sox play-by-play man Jason Benetti will be calling the action, assisted by Eduardo Perez and MLB.com Statcast writer Mike Petriello.

An ESPN spokesman sent me more details on this first-time broadcast:

It will be similar to what was done on ESPNEWS for the Home Run Derby. It will be on ESPN2 for the first time. Information, driven mostly by Statcast, will run in the BottomLine, in on-screen graphics and will be discussed by the commentator team.

So if you’re into statistical analysis or just want a different type of call for tonight’s game, tune into ESPN2.

In either case, we hope both broadcast teams are describing a Cubs victory.