This is what I’m thinking: Buffalo television viewers seem to have embraced the idea that Major League Baseball should consider playing three inning games. Kidding. Sort of.

But the final three innings of the 4-3 victory that gave the Philadelphia Phillies the World Series championship in five games over the Tampa Bay Rays was a ratings hit here.

The three-inning finish averaged a 10.2 rating on WUTV, the local Fox affiliate. That was about 50 percent higher than the approximately 7 rating that Sunday’s Game Four and the first 5z innin 3/4 1/3 of Monday’s Game Five scored here.

Fox got an 11.9 national rating for the 80-minute conclusion. The ratings here and nationally probably were heightened by the dramatic possibility that it would end the Series.

The best part of Fox’s broadcast was the montage it played of Philly’s manager and various players and coaches reacting to the game-ending strikeout by reliever Brad Lidge. The joy of each Phillie was beautifully captured.

Ratings for Sunday’s Buffalo Bills game with the New York Jets should get back to normal now that Channel 4 is back on cable. But the ratings for the two games that were off cable were much stronger than expected. The loss by the Bills in Miami last Sunday averaged a 23.5 rating even without the game available in about 50 percent of area homes. If you double the homes, that would have translated to a 47.0 rating, a Super Bowl-like rating that is about 10 points higher than Bills games usually get here this time of year.

CBS is sending its top announcing team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms to The Ralph for the game Sunday against the Jets and Brett Favre. The Bills’ 5-2 start has helped raise the team’s profile, but the New York market and Favre equally could be the reason for Nantz and Simms being here.

By the way, CBS analyst Randy Cross named Bills coach Dick Jauron his Coach of the Half Year in this week’s first half report card.

If you’re looking ahead to see if a Bills game might be flexed to NBC’s Sunday Night Football schedule, don’t hold your breath. A combination of weak Bills opponents and a decent NBC schedule makes it likely the first chance the Bills will be flexed is Dec. 21 at Denver. And that’s only if the San Diego-Tampa game that is scheduled turns out to be a dog and the Bills’ game is the best alternative. The Bills’ home finale against New England also is a possibility if it is the best game in the final weekend with playoff implications.

A FiOS representative reports that Verizon has made a national deal to carry NHL Center Ice and the NHL Network. It is rolling out the channels in markets in November. If Verizon considers how popular hockey is here, Buffalo would be at the top of the list to get it. The arrival of NHL Network HD will be a boost to FiOS customers who want to get CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. The NHL Network carries HNIC in HD. The Toronto CBC affiliate that is carried on Time Warner isn’t in HD. Of course, the big issue that hockey fans have here with FiOS is its inability to show Sabres home games in HD.

Cable subscribers without the NFL Network, which begins its games Thursday with Denver against Cleveland, undoubtedly missed this statement by rookie analyst Warren Sapp on a Sunday program that aired recently: “The Buffalo Bills are going to go to the Super Bowl.”

ESPN’s Chris Berman did a very favorable interview last Sunday with Bills quarterback Trent Edwards in which he asked Edwards to explain the team’s fourth-quarter comebacks this season. Edwards didn’t have an explanation. Then he and the Bills went out and laid an egg in Miami.

The victory by the University at Buffalo over Ohio University on Tuesday averaged about a .5 rating on ESPNU here, representing only about 3,200 households. Of course, that ESPN channel isn’t in as many cable homes as ESPN2, which carries UB’s home game on Election Night against Miami (Ohio). On a slow sports night, that game is expected to get a higher rating here.