Dodgers-Phillies TV coverage

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Think Jonathan Broxton had a tough time trying to get Matt Stairs out in the eighth inning?

Fox dugout reporter Ken Rosenthal found it awfully tough to get anything out of Stairs in the postgame interview. At the age of 40, in his 16th big league season, Stairs hit his first postseason home run, a two-run shot off Broxton to give the Phillies a 7-5 victory over the Dodgers on Monday night and a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series.

So why did Stairs seem like he had struck out? Or had just woken up after dozing through the game? The peanut vendor shows more emotion than this guy.

The best Rosenthal could get out of Stairs when he asked where the home run ranked in Stairs’ career was, ‘It was definitely up there.’

So was the Fox broadcast, beginning with the studio show in which Eric Karros joined Kevin Kennedy and Jeanne Zelasko. Big improvement over Mark Grace.

Great camera work by Fox in the first inning after Dodgers starter Derek Lowe, angry about giving up two runs, ripped his jersey off as he reached the dugout. Fox caught every button popping.

Also great camera work: catching third base coach Larry Bowa nearly grabbing Rafael Furcal in an attempt to stop the Dodgers shortstop from running through his stop sign, and Russell Martin literally shoving Casey Blake out of the dugout to take a curtain call after homering.

Not so great: Having Clayton Kershaw read the starting lineup. Come on, this is the entertainment capital of the world. The dugout seats looked like the first few rows at the Oscars. Couldn’t any of the celebs be imposed upon to read nine names?

Game 3 of the series on Sunday got a 13.6 rating and a 23 share in Los Angeles, a 44% increase over Game 2 on Friday (6.4/16).

Game 4 figured to be even better, until the Stairs interview.

-- Steve Springer