In his third season as TBS’s No. 1 national baseball announcer, Chip Caray is slightly better than he was two years ago when the network began carrying the league division series. But that doesn’t mean he is a No. 1 announcer.

Caray is still prone to bad play calls, descriptive exaggerations and factual errors. Every announcer makes mistakes, but Caray’s lips form a pattern of an announcer out of his element. The producer, Glenn Diamond; the director, Lonnie Dale; and the statistician are either failing him or he is spurning their advice and support.

No one in the production truck could rescue him from his 10th-inning classic faux pas during the Twins-Tigers tie breaker Tuesday night. Caray called the Twins’ Nick Punto’s sharply hit liner to left field this way: “Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate. On target. And in time! A double play.”

My ears quivered in amazement at hearing a very obvious lineout called a single as smoothly as Caray did.