The Braves didn’t just get beaten on Wednesday night, they believe the game may have been stolen from them.
Only a week after Aaron Harang shut down the Marlins with 11 strikeouts, the right-hander got lit up by Miami for a career-high nine runs, leading Atlanta to wonder if their opponent was stealing signs.
“It was baffling, like, where were these guys last week?” Harang told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They were way too comfortable. It seemed like they were all hitting like Ted Williams.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was convinced something was awry around the fourth inning, and had the team look around the stadium for any clues. Gonzalez said he changed signs five times during the game and used multiple signs, even when there were no runners on base. Nothing changed. The Marlins kept hitting in their 9-3 victory.
“If you would have taken a look at our dugout at one point in the game, it was like the fourth or fifth inning, they were hitting balls everywhere, we got three guys looking at the scoreboard,” Gonzalez said. “You got two guys looking at their bullpen. I’m calling [bullpen coach] Eddie [Perez], ‘Eddie, do you see anything?’ I’m looking at [catcher Evan] Gattis, thinking he’s maybe tipping his pitches. Carlos [Tosca] is looking in the bench over there, maybe somebody is whistling or something.”
Harang may have been tipping his pitches, Gattis may have been tipping his signs. Ultimately, Gonzalez came up with nothing.
Except a funny memory of how the team was so convinced something was going on that it looked at the sculpture in center field, wondering if someone was hiding in there with a camera or binoculars.
“There was one guy sitting [in outfield seats] who had a red hat and an orange shirt,” Gonzalez said. “I said ‘Boy, that’s a bad combination to have.’ I told [Jordan] Schafer and [Tyler] Pastornicky to keep an eye on that guy over there. The guy got up, went to get a Coke.
“Yeah, you have this conspiracy theory, but at the end, we came up with nothing. It wasn’t like we saw a guy with the [binoculars] like Mick Billmeyer (former Phillies bullpen coach) in Colorado. At the end of the day, they didn’t miss the pitches. They were right there.”