Baseball coverage diamonds and flaws

THIS WEEKEND In Baseball: MLB Network has done well to condition fans to anticipate live coverage of what’s worth seeing. Thus, Friday’s last outs in Cleveland’s 19-inning win in Toronto — the Tribe’s 14th straight — were carried on MLBN.

Then there’s the good application of stats. Met radio voice Josh Lewin, Sunday, during the Mets’ smashing of Cubs’ starter Jon Lester: “He’d allowed just seven runs in his last 50 innings. Today, in just the f irst 1 ¹/3, he has allowed seven” — and soon to be eight.

In the eighth of Monday’s Yanks-White Sox, YES’ Michael Kay noted that the last four Yanks to bat with runners in scoring position struck out. Aaron Hicks then made it five.

Ah, but then there’s semi-conscious ESPN. Sunday, before the Mets began their second straight four-game sweep of the Cubs — who could forget last year’s NLCS? — the graphic and stat geniuses at ESPN had either forgotten or ignored it, posting, “Mets looking for their f irst fourgame sweep of the Cubs since June, 1985.”

Top of the first in San Diego, Sunday, Yanks have two on, two out, 0-1 count on Starlin Castro. Suddenly, John Sterling interrupts himself to say, “Now Castro behind, oh-and-two.” Huh? How so? Although Sterling didn’t bother to tell a radio audience, Castro had fouled back a fastball.

At the start of Friday’s Cubs-Mets rain delay, SNY’s Keith Hernandez: “I’m gonna pull up the radar app to see what’s going on. ... Oh, this’ll be very quickly out of here, very quickly. Then why are we putting the tarp on? It’s gonna move — unless it’s hangs around.” The delay ran 1:08.