Signal? Greinke’s odd move.
Thoughts on Game 4 of the A’sAstros Division Series on Thursday at Dodger Stadium: Zack Greinke did it again. He flashed two fingers to catcher Martin Maldonado before hanging a slider that Ramón Laureano crushed for a threerun homer in the second inning. After repeatedly shaking off Maldonado’s signs, Greinke simply flashed the signs himself. Greinke wasn’t exactly tipping his pitches as much as telling Maldonado which set of signs to use so the runner on second couldn’t detect the pitch. Consider that, traditionally, one finger is a fastball, two is a curve, three is a slider and four is a changeup. Greinke flashed two fingers and threw a slider — if the catcher flashes one finger, it could be two up from a fastball. Thus a slider. Or, as a former AllStar catcher tells us, “Perhaps they have an addsubtract system according to the number of outs” or, “After the first ‘ one’ is put down, the pitch would be two after that; the ‘ one’ starts the count.”
Greinke hinted his intent in an Aug. 12 game against the Giants. He couldn’t get on the same page with Maldonado and wanted to work more quickly, so he simply yelled to his catcher “second sign after one” and “second sign after two.” It didn’t help the Giants, who lost 51.
We tweeted a still shot of Greinke holding up two fingers, and folks had a ball responding: “It’s almost like he knew what pitch was coming” and “This is a great first step to right the wrongs of this franchise’s past” and “Trying to make up for the trash cans.” 1 The Athletic’s Jayson Stark: “Zack Greinke prides himself on being his very own self all the time no matter what anyone thinks. But telling the hitter what’s coming before allowing a 3run homer? Is that the opposite of the Babe calling his shot?”
Dusty Baker had his ingame interview when Khris Davis was at the plate and displaying his stepinthebucket approach to hitting: “Here’s a guy who’s probably given us as much trouble as anybody in their lineup. It looks like he’s always trying to hit it into right field. His body goes one way, but he has enough power to hit it out the other way.” 1 The A’s were without Matt Chapman, but he was present in one form. Resting on the top of the dugout bench: a Matt Chapman cutout. 1 The parallels were too obvious. When Laureano gave his pep talk during Game 3, firing up his teammates to overcome a threerun deficit and win 97, it was tough not to think of Hunter Pence. The A’s were down two games to none just as the Giants were in the 2012 Division Series when Pence turned into The Reverend and gave an inspirational and animated speech that spirited the Giants to victory. The difference is, the A’s lasted one more game. The Giants won the World Series.
“Here’s a guy who’s probably given us as much trouble as anybody in their lineup.” Dusty Baker, Houston manager, on the A’s Khris Davis
1 A day after Laureano’s “emotional outburst,” as Bob Melvin called it, A’s broadcasters suggested the passionate chat session fit the center fielder’s personality. “That’s Laureano,” Ray Fosse said. “If you charge the dugout ( which Laureano did with the Astros in August) and are not looking behind you to see if somebody’s going to follow you, that’s pretty impressive.”
Ken Korach’s final call: “The pitch to Davis is taken, ring him up, strike three called and this game is over. So the Houston Astros have knocked the A’s out of the postseason in four games in the American League Division Series, as the Astros see the A’s score two times in the ninth inning but come up five short. This 2020 season that saw the A’s win the division by seven games over the Astros ends today at Dodger Stadium on the 8th of October.”