Fastball

Baseball and Broadcasting History Were Made in Monday's A's vs. Astros Game

As the Oakland Athletics played the Houston Astros on Monday night, history was made as there were female play-by-play broadcasters on both sides for the first time ever.

Brady Farkas

Jul 28, 2018; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Astros catcher Martin Maldonado (15) talks with reporter Julia Morales
Jul 28, 2018; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Astros catcher Martin Maldonado (15) talks with reporter Julia Morales / Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
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The Houston Astros beat the Oakland Athletics on Monday night, 9-2, at MinuteMaid Park in Houston. The win moved the Astros to 16-25 on the season while the loss dropped the A's to 19-24.

While the on-field stuff was good, featuring two home runs from Alex Bregman, the game was meaningful beyond what happened in the between the lines:

The game was historic because of what happened in the broadcast booth, per MLB on "X:"

Julia Morales and Jenny Cavnar made history in Houston

For the first time in a regular season MLB game, the home and road broadcasts featured women on play-by-play!

Cavnar is in her first year doing A's games after previously working on the Colorado Rockies television productions, while Morales is usually the field reporter for the Astros on the Space City Home Network.

Her and usual play-by-play man Todd Kalas switched roles for the day, as he indicated on Sunday on "X:"

Tomorrow, we switch spots on @SpaceCityHN ā¦ā© telecast.
While @JuliaMoralesā¦ā© will crush the play-by-play role, Iā€™ll have my hands full juggling all her reporter responsibilities
Excited to hear her and ā¦ā©@JennyCavnar make history tomorrow! #HappyMothersDay

Both Cavnar and Morales are mothers, so this being done around Mother's Day had to make it extra special for both, and it's a continued step in the right direction in term's of baseball's efforts to diversify.

There has already been an all-female broadcast on MLB Network before, but to see it happen for both teams is very cool and very unique.

The two teams will play again on Tuesday night.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.Ā 

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