Manny Machado was positioned as the villain of this World Series, and while the Red Sox’s latest accusation against the All-Star isn’t exactly evil, it’s not so nice either.
Boston pitching coach Dana LeVangie said he saw Machado stealing signs during the fourth inning of the Sox’s Game 2 win over the Dodgers, according to Bleacher Report.
LeVangie said he observed Machado, who was on second base, putting his hands on his hips, touching his helmet and jersey and grabbing his crotch in what appeared to be a coordinated effort to relay pitches to Yasiel Puig, who was batting.
“Was it a little exaggerated?” LeVangie said. “Yeah, maybe, but I saw the whole thing.”
The coach said he had wanted to go out to speak to pitcher David Price during the fourth inning about the potential sign stealing, but Price had just struck out Kiké Hernandez and LeVangie did not want to interfere with his rhythm.
“I had told [Red Sox manager Alex Cora] I wanted to go [to the mound] before the Puig at-bat because I wanted to talk about some things,” LeVangie said. “But when a guy gets a big punchout in that situation and a coach comes out to take a visit … I didn’t want to f—k with the momentum there because David got a huge strikeout.”
LeVangie immediately regretted his decision as Puig singled to bring home Machado and give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. The coach then made his visit to the mound, and Price worked out of the inning and would get the win as the Red Sox rallied for a 4-2 win and a 2-0 lead in the series.
While stealing signs is not technically against the rules, it is frowned upon as one of baseball’s many “unwritten rules.” And, particularly for a player such as Machado has courted controversy with his hard slides and crotch grabs throughout the postseason.
LeVangie, however, seemed to understand the history of it and took responsibility for allowing the signs to be stolen in the first place.
“It’s baseball,” he said. “If you’re not hiding your stuff with a runner on second base and you’re giving them a free view, that’s on you, the pitcher and the catcher. It’s up to the pitcher and catcher to manage that and to us to oversee it and make sure we’re going about it the right way.”
So if Machado really wants to lean into this villain role, it sounds like he will have to try harder than this.
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