Melanie Newman, Jessica Mendoza to call Dodgers-Padres Wednesday

CNN Business reported last week that Melanie Newman and Jessica Mendoza would be on the call for the network’s first all-female broadcast Wednesday. It was later revealed over the weekend that the game will be the Dodgers and Padres, nationally televised from Dodger Stadium.

Neither of the duo is a stranger to calling baseball games.

Newman made history as the first woman to call an Orioles’ game in 2020 and is a regular in Baltimore’s booth on the play-by-play. This will also be Newman’s second all-female broadcast this season, after handling the play-by-play for a game exclusively on Youtube with four others, including Alanna Rizzo.

Joining ESPN in 2007, Mendoza has been part of the Sunday Night Baseball crew on a permanent basis since 2016. She became the first female analyst for ESPN back in 2015, the first on a nationally televised MLB Postseason game and the first on a Men’s College World Series telecast.

Aside from the Wednesday broadcast, ESPN will also be in town for Tuesday’s game in Los Angeles. Karl Ravech and Tim Kurkjian will be with Mendoza in the booth as the Dodgers open their final homestand of the regular season.

Both games are nationally televised with no local blackout restrictions.

Dodgers links

• Bill Shaikin writes at the Los Angeles Times that the current playoff format is thanks to a Dodgers-Padres game in 1996 when it didn’t matter who won. The winner won the division and the loser got the wild card. Both teams went to NLDS and had no incentive to win.
• FiveThirtyEight broke down trades of big names based on WAR, illustrating the point that making a trade for a star at the deadline doesn't end with a title. But the Dodgers are hoping that two will.
• MLB dot com put together a list of big moments in the Dodgers-Giants rivalry. From 1951 to 2004, the two teams have come down to the wire several times.