Nats’ Rizzo shrugs off Astros’ apology, says, ‘they cheated’

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. >> Count Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo among those not impressed or satisfied by the Houston Astros’ attempts to apologize for — and put behind them — their sign-stealing scandal.

“They cheated. They were found guilty of it. And I haven’t heard it yet,” Rizzo said Friday after Washington’s workout at the spring training complex the team shares with Houston.

“The thing that pains me the most is it puts a black cloud over the sport that I love. And that’s not right. The commissioner did an investigation and found that they cheated in 2017 and 2018. Somebody’s got to say the words over there: ‘cheated.’ And that’s important to me,” Rizzo said. “For the sport to move on, which is what I’m most concerned about, we have to make sure that all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed on this investigation before we end it.”

Rizzo’s NL champ Nationals went into last year’s World Series prepared to deal with against-the-rules actions by the AL champ Astros before beating them in Game 7 for the title.

“I have no proof of what, if anything, they did in 2019,” Rizzo said. “We assumed they were, and we prepared diligently for it.”

A’s Kemp: Not part of it

MESA, ARIZ. >> Called up in September 2017 by Houston, Tony Kemp immediately got asked by teammates whether he wanted to be a part of the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme. His answer was a firm no, and Kemp didn’t feel further pressure to do it.

“That stood,” the second baseman said Friday after arriving in Oakland’s spring training camp and reuniting with former Astros teammate Mike Fiers, who went public in November about Houston’s sign-stealing.

“Once I got there in September

the system was already in place and I just tried to keep my head down and play hard and not really concern myself with it,” Kemp said.

He said what Houston did was wrong, and when asked whether the ‘17 World Series title is tainted, noted: “That’s a good question, everyone’s going to have their own speculations about it, everyone’s going to have their own opinions about it. I’m not sure.”

Maeda: Did stealing signs hurt Darvish?

FORT MYERS, FLA. >> Kenta Maeda wonders whether the Astros’ sign stealing affected the performance of teammate Yu Darvish during the Dodgers’ 2017 World Series loss to Houston.

Darvish lost Games 3 and 7. He gave up nine runs — eight earned — over just 3.1 total innings with two walks and no strikeouts. He didn’t make it out of the second innings in either game.

“Yu Darvish usually doesn’t give up that many hits, in that sense now that this news has come out, it makes sense — and he didn’t get any strikeouts,” Maeda said through a translator Friday morning at Minnesota’s spring training complex.

Maeda didn’t think it signstealing affected his performance. He gave up a tying, three-run homer in Game 5 to José Altuve in a game Houston went on to win.

“That’s the only homer I gave up,” Maeda said. “I’m not even sure for 100% if he knew my signs, if he knew the pitch.

“If I knew for sure Altuve knew my pitch. I would have been bothered, frustrated.”

JEFF ROBERSON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Astros manager Dusty Baker is surrounded as he speaks to the media during on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla.