Make California Post a Preferred Source Apparently, getting swept out of the National League Championship Series wasn’t humiliating enough for the Dodgers. Now, some of their fans are trying to turn a good old-fashioned baseball beatdown into baseball’s next great cheating scandal.
The evidence? A few long at-bats, a couple of unexpected home runs and a whole lot of sour grapes.
After the Milwaukee Brewers completed their four-game sweep of the two-time defending World Series champions with a 6-4 victory Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, conspiracy theories began circulating on social media accusing Milwaukee of knowing which pitches were coming.
12-pitch AB walk against one of the best postseason pitchers in the last 20 years and now a 11-pitch AB 2R HR?Brewer fans will look at you straight in the face and say that their team is just this amazing, but we'll eventually know that the Brewers were cheating the whole time. https://t.co/nL5nI2uO1X
Never mind that nobody has produced a shred of evidence of illegal sign-stealing.
The amateur detectives pointed to Jake Bauers’ grueling 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, his lengthy battle against Blake Snell in Game 3 and another extended confrontation with Tyler Glasnow in Game 4.
Still want to tell me again that this team isn't cheating?Bauers with a HR and 3 RBIs and Mitchell with a solo shot to take the lead?Am I supposed to believe that this is just a gritty underdog team that ISN'T cheating in some way? https://t.co/kCDOz6R5xs
Garrett Mitchell’s home runs against Snell and Tanner Scott in Games 3 and 4 only added fuel to the conspiracy theories. Mitchell only hit one homer off a left-hander in 104 at-bats during the regular season. He hit two in the series.
But apparently, battling through an at-bat and hitting a home run against a difficult matchup are now grounds for a federal investigation.
And who helped give this nonsense oxygen? AM 570 radio guy David Vassegh, whose devotion to the Dodgers occasionally makes objectivity seem like an opposing team’s scouting report.
Vassegh, the host of “Dodger Talk,” claimed multiple unidentified MLB players texted him during Game 2 suggesting the Brewers knew what Yamamoto was throwing. He subsequently asked former Reds slugger Joey Votto whether the Japanese right-hander might have been tipping his pitches.
“Sure, there’s a pretty good chance they caught something,” Votto said.
That’s where this entire controversy falls apart.
Recognizing a pitcher tipping his pitches isn’t cheating. It’s baseball.
For generations, hitters have studied pitchers’ grips, glove positioning, delivery and mechanics for clues. Modern technology, including sophisticated video analysis and artificial intelligence, has made identifying those tendencies even easier.
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy has discussed that very practice himself.
There is an enormous difference between detecting a pitcher’s tell through legitimate observation and illegally intercepting or electronically relaying signs, as Houston did during its infamous 2017 scandal.
Even Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged the obvious after Milwaukee’s series-clinching victory.
Roberts didn’t make excuses. He didn’t spout conspiracy theories, and he certainly didn’t reference anonymous sources that told him the Brewers were cheating.
The Brewers won 103 regular-season games, then dismantled Los Angeles with superior pitching, timely hitting, aggressive baserunning, fundamentally sound defense and relentless execution.
They didn’t need a secret camera, a trash can, a train whistle or a decoder ring.
And for four straight games, that’s exactly what they did.
The Dodgers’ dynasty may not be finished, but their reign atop baseball certainly took a beating this October.
Milwaukee is headed to its first World Series since 1982.
Instead of inventing excuses, Dodgers fans might consider doing what their own manager did and tip their caps to the better team this time around.
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