ESPN misses first pitch of Giants-Dodgers for commercial break, repeats mistake in second inning

Fans hoping to watch the first pitch of the San Francisco Giants’ 2020 season as it happened were instead treated to a commercial for software company Rimini Street as well as the beginning of what was almost assured to be a riveting ad for Stamps.com.

ESPN, which was responsible for broadcasting the Giant’s season opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers to a national audience, missed the first pitch of the game because the network was on a commercial break.

The Stamps.com ad was abruptly cut off for a return to the action, where viewers could see the pitch count stood at one on the score chyron and a runner was already on base.

“Welcome back, everyone. We apologize the game got under way a quicker than we thought coming back from the commercial,” ESPN’s Karl Ravech explained before telling the viewers what they missed. “Mike Yastrzemski reached on an error that will be charged to Corey Seager, a ground ball off his glove.”

The network then proceeded to run a commercial break over the first pitch of the second inning as well, although this time the pitch was simply a ball thrown by starting pitcher Dustin May that resulted in a 1-0 count to Giants outfielder Joe McCarthy. So viewers can take solace in the fact that they were not deprived of a potentially comical error that may have spawned “Looks like the Dodgers’ season is already off to a great start” jokes and a place on SportsCenter’s Not Top 10 segment.

The sports network surely missed the revenue that comes from commercials during live sports during the coronavirus pandemic, but advertisers have lined up to run their spots during the MLB’s return. CNN reported that Disney Advertising Sales has described “high demand” for ESPN games, and a Disney ad sales spokesman said “we are sold out of inventory for the opening week and the rest of the regular season.”

If it comes down to squeezing out some more ad dollars vs. potentially getting fodder for SportsCenter (and making the viewers happy, of course!), it appears ESPN will take the former.

Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting