Yasmani Grandel and Clayton Kershaw Get on the Same Page in Between Pitches in Game Two of the NLCS.
With game three on deck in the National League Championship Series between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers, things seem to get a little more tense. Dodger catcher, Yasmani Grandal has accused Chicago Cub second baseman, Ben Zobrist of cheating.
Actually, there is an accusation of stealing signs and relaying them to teammates.
With the series knotted at one game a piece and set to resume on Tuesday night, Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts called stealing signs, simply part of the game.
Zobrist incidentally, denies being able to relay or steal the signs and thinks that Grandel may be just being paranoid, like most catchers.
What seemed to alert Grandel to the possibility, was in Saturday's eighth inning when Addison Russell worked the count to 3-0 off reliever Joe Blanton.
"All the sudden, Russell is not taking good swings at sliders, looking like he's looking for a fastball and in a certain location," Grandel is quoted as saying.
Grandel seemed determined to frustrate the faithful fans of Wrigley Field by frequently meeting with Clayton Kershaw in yesterday's victory to make sure they were on the same page in conjunction with, which pitch was called for.
Nowhere is baseball's rulebook is it prohibited from attempting to decode the sequence of signs relayed from the catcher to pitcher. Some big leaguers believe in the unwritten "code" that it is a big "no-no" that breaks the spirit of good sportsmanship.
There wasn't that much of an opportunity to actually steal signs in game two against the Dodgers, as Kershaw and Kenly Jansen allowed only one Cub baserunner to get as far as second base in the Dodger's 1-0 victory to even the series up.
With this being such a big series for both organizations and there being so much on the line for both teams, you will probably see both managers employ any kind of gamesmanship to seek an advantage and advance to the World Series.
