Baseball broadcasts are used to cutting cameras away from unruly fans making obscene gestures — but the blame for one caught live on the air remains the broadcast’s own.
During the Cincinnati Reds’ matchup against the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night, the Braves’ home telecast on FanDuel Sports Network decided to do a quick feature on the star shortstop Elly De La Cruz and his twin brother Pedro.
So, they showed two photos of the brothers — and somehow did not catch the fact that Pedro was flipping his middle finger to the camera in one of the flicks.
The intent was to show De La Cruz and his hilarious height difference with his twin. The 6-foot-5 All Star shortstop’s brother stands at 5-foot-8, making for a quite humorous and shocking dynamic.
To make matters worse, Atlanta’s broadcast was also being simulcast on MLB Network. This amplified the broadcasting blunder to a whole new level and allowed it to reach more eyes than just Braves fans.
MLB’s official X account even posted the segment after the fact, but removed the obvious flipping of the bird that Pedro De La Cruz displayed in one of the pictures.
While the hilarious slip-up stole the show, the segment highlighted that while Elly stars for the Reds, Pedro runs a car wash back home in the Dominican Republic.
“De La Cruz tells the story that as boys, Pedro was always the bigger, stronger twin,” the broadcast said. “But around 12, that changed quickly and then all of a sudden Elly is 6-6 and Pedro never got past 5-8.”
While their careers went on drastically different paths, the broadcast noted that the two are still very close.
De La Cruz’s Reds went on to fall to the Braves 5-4 in what turned out to be an exciting game.
Cincinnati broke a 2-2 score in the top of the ninth off via Rece Hinds two-run homer.
Atlanta wouldn’t go away, though, as the home team rallied to send the game into extra innings before Drake Baldwin knocked in the winning run for the Braves in the bottom of the 11th.
De La Cruz went 0-for-4 in the game with three strikeouts and is currently batting .258 with five home runs and 25 RBIs.