Saturday Night, after Chicago won the third game, White Sox reliever Ryan Tepera had a thought that Houston might be stealing signs in Games 1 & 2 of their AL Division Series.
After he won a pair of impressive victories, he was going to sweep later. But somehow it struck out 16 times in a 12-6 loss at Chicago after it struck out 16 times altogether in the first two games. In each of the last five innings, the AL West champions went down in order.
The difference between the Astros at home and that on the road was noted by Tepera who worked two perfect innings.
“Yeah. It is what it is. They’ve obviously had a reputation of doing some sketchy stuff over there,” he said. “It’s just, we can say that it’s a little bit of a difference. I think you saw the swings and misses tonight compared to, you know, the first two games at Minute Maid. But that’s not really the story, you know? We come here to play. We’re going to compete. We’re not going to worry about what they’re going to do.
“All we have to do is execute pitches and they can’t hit them anyways.”
Game 4 of the best-pf-five is going to happen on Monday afternoon in Chicago, unfortunately there is rain predicted on Monday according to the forecast.
Major League Baseball disciplined the Astros after it was found that they used electronics to steal signs during their run to the 2017 World Series title and again in the 2018 season.
During home games, Houston used a video feed from a center-field camera to see and decode the opposing catcher’s signs, according to the MLB investigation. Players banged on a trash can to warn batters of impending batters, believing that doing so would increase the batter’s chances of getting a hit.
In the aftermath, GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch were fired, but no players were disciplined after Commissioner Rob Manfred granted them immunity as part of the league’s investigation.
