In baseball, there’s a fine line between gamesmanship and outright gamesmanship-that’s-just-a-little-too-convenient. On August 9, in a tight matchup between the San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox, that line got blurry, and Padres fans have every right to raise an eyebrow.
In the top of the ninth inning, cameras caught a Red Sox coach with screenshots on their iPad. The images, reportedly, showed the difference in Robert Suarez’s setup depending on whether he was about to fire a fastball or a changeup. In other words, Suarez was tipping his pitches. And while spotting a tell is part of the game, the way Boston went about it is what raised questions.