The St. Louis Cardinals are upset at the suggestion that they were stealing signs en route to a thrilling comeback victory over Clayton Kersahw and the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
The Cardinals entered the 7th inning of their NLDS game against the Dodgers on Friday night having been absolutely dominated by Clayton Kershaw. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Cardinals were able to string together hits, score eight runs in that one inning, and mount a dramatic comeback for the victory.
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With some people apparently refusing to believe what they saw, there have been alternate explanations offered for the rally. Some wonder if Kershaw started tipping his pitches once he was going from the stretch. Others have gone so far as to suggest that the Cardinals had a way to steal signs.
The latter suggestion yielded some heated reactions from Cardinals players who balked at the suggestion. From the LA Times:
"“C’mon!” Holliday said. “I’ve been playing 11 years and I’m stealing signs?”Molina said talk of sign-stealing and tipped pitches stole credit from the people who deserved it: the Cardinals hitters.“We had a bunch of good at-bats against him,” said Molina, who singled and scored against Kershaw during the eight-run rally. “He started leaving the ball in the middle, up. And we [had] some good at-bats. We put the ball in play.”"
Sometimes we over-think things. You know what happened in the rally in question? The Cardinals fought off pitches and put together killer at-bats while Kershaw became too dependent on his fastball and started missing his locations. That resulted in a bunch of St. Louis offense.
Yes, it was surprising that Kershaw got hit around. But this was just baseball stuff happening, not something fishy. The Cardinals deserve credit for an incredible rally and that’s the end of it.
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