Jessica Mendoza showed Sunday night that she belongs in ESPN’s regular rotation of baseball game analysts, with a smart, understated stint in place of Curt Schilling.
She did not sound nervous. She did not push herself into conversations whenever a thought occurred to her. She had an easy camaraderie with the play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman and the analyst John Kruk, with whom she worked at the women’s College World Series in 2008. Sometimes she offered the first analysis of a play, sometimes Kruk did, alternating easily as veteran partners might.
More important, she spoke quite knowledgeably about batting mechanics, pitch sequences and the way Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta manipulated the speed of his slider en route to a no-hitter.