A pigeon diverted attention from the Mets’ victory against the Angels on Sunday afternoon, and Peacock’s broadcasters complemented their play-by-play with some descriptions of the bird.

Everything appeared to start in the seventh inning, when the broadcasters mentioned the pigeon during Mark Vientos’ at-bat, and one member of the crew joked that Randy Johnson — who killed a bird with a pitch in 2021 — was “nowhere to be seen.”

“I think he feels pretty good because [Angels pitcher] Griffin Canning is more of a flyball, strikeout pitcher,” one of the broadcasters said, after Vientos fouled off a pitch with the pigeon perched in front of the mound.

“He checked on Baseball Savant,” the broadcaster continued. “He goes, ‘Yeah, he’s more of a flyball, strikeout pitcher.”

The broadcast also captured two members of the grounds crew — who were “booed vociferously by the crowd here at Citi Field” — chasing the pigeon around the infield and outfield by second base in between innings, before it eventually started flying.

“They finally got it to fly away,” a Peacock broadcaster said. “It took a couple of laps around the outfield.”

And then the pigeon returned, pausing in foul territory around third base, according to the Associated Press.

This wasn’t the first time that an animal has filled time on a Mets broadcast in 2023, either, as a road trip to Oakland in April featured the SNY crew talking about a possum that forced them to switch booths due to its droppings.

“So the Angels played here at the beginning of the season,” Mets play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen said. “They were the first team in. Wayne Randazzo, our friend, is now the television voice of the Angels, and he told us in the opening game of the season, the possum who apparently lives somewhere in the wall behind that visitors TV booth made an appearance during the game in their booth. 

“It was just crawling around, minding its own possum business, walking across the counter. He wasn’t trying to horn in on the broadcast. He was just doing his possum things. Anyway, so they set traps for this possum, but he’s proved elusive.”

The Mets, who were tied with the Angels in the seventh when the pigeon first took over the broadcast Sunday, earned a walk-off win to avoid a sweep when Rafael Ortega hit a game-winning single in the ninth.