PHOENIX — A day after tensions rose between the Chicago Cubs and the Arizona Diamondbacks over pitch tipping, the issue appeared resolved for both sides by Tuesday night.
The situation reached a crescendo during the fifth inning of the Cubs’ 7-0 win Monday. The Diamondbacks became incensed by Cubs third base coach Quintin Berry relaying pitch information to his hitters from cues he picked up watching right-hander Merrill Kelly. The Cubs had done their due diligence through video work before the series, which Berry was then able to pick up from his vantage point in the third-base coach’s box during Monday’s game.
The chirping escalated to finger-pointing, yelling and some f-bombs lobbed from coaches in each dugout in the top of the fifth. Berry was catching plenty of heat, too, from his on-field position directly in front of Arizona’s dugout on the third-base side.
Diamondbacks bench coach Jeff Bannister and Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty were at the center of it, while Kelly was seen glaring at Berry from the mound and then the dugout after he was pulled in the sixth. Afterward, Kelly felt that Berry’s efforts to relay pitches to the hitters were “bush league,” while manager Craig Counsell said, “That’s gamesmanship that goes on every day in the league.”
“If it’s a guy on second base and they see the grip in your glove or the hitters can see something that you’re doing with your glove, I think that’s fair game, guys have been doing that since the beginning of baseball,” Kelly told reporters. “Inside the lines is one thing. I think guys standing outside the lines, it’s a little bush league.”
Emotions had cooled by pregame Tuesday.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo called Counsell on Tuesday to apologize for his team’s anger at Berry’s actions, noting the league said his pitch relaying was legal from his position in the coach’s box.
“I think the world of Torey,” Counsell said Tuesday. ” … He felt like he wanted to do it and I appreciate it.”
Bannister and Berry met at first base during Diamondbacks batting practice on Tuesday to hash things out. The roughly five-minute conversation concluded with Bannister and Berry exchanging a handshake and hug. Berry plans to keep doing whatever he can to help his hitters.
“It’s pure emotional competition,” Berry told the Tribune. “They’re obviously playing for something, we’re playing for something and I think when you’re trying to do that you’re trying to gain control of both sides of the situation. If they think we’ve got something, and they think I’m doing something, and they’re yelling at me, trying to get me to stop, that makes sense too.
“If they think I’m over there doing something that’s going to give us an advantage, them barking at me as much as they can to try to get me to stop, I get it. I would do it too. So it’s all good. It’s part of it. Get through yesterday and try to do it again today and see what happens.”
Berry has always loved this part of the game, dating back to his playing days. He always tried to create chaos when on base and looking to steal. PitchCom has neutralized many of the ways hitters and base runners could impact the game by picking up things on the bases.
“It requires a lot of studying, no doubt,” Berry said. “And then that’s part of everybody trying to clean up their own stuff. Everybody’s trying to make sure because if it is a thing, it’s an advantage, and you don’t want it to come back and catch you later in the season, especially when it’s time for playoffs. So it’s always good for everybody to take notice of stuff and get it before it becomes a problem.”
From the Cubs’ perspective, this is just part of the game. The Cubs know they have had pitch tipping used against them this season, too, mostly frequently during Shota Imanaga’s starts, including Sunday against the Seattle Mariners — which contributed to him lasting only two-plus innings for the shortest outing of his career.
Every team is looking for an on-field edge.
“It is a really frustrating thing when another team has a pitch or your pitches, and it’s happened to us this year at times with other teams, and I’m sure times that we haven’t been aware of it too,” Cubs infielder Nico Hoerner told the Tribune. “Sometimes there’s a gray area. I feel like the game is in a pretty understood place of what’s happening on the field is fair game, and the league’s obviously been strict about coaches and the coaching box. Like, you shouldn’t have coaches on the outfield grass, in the dugout or way out of position. It’s very frustrating when you’re on the other side of it. But every team, I feel like, has the same resources.”
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As the Cubs see it, it’s on every other team to prevent the other side from picking up on something their pitcher might be doing. Being proactive and understanding what cues another team might try to exploit from the pitcher — anything from their glove positioning on different pitch types to the catcher’s setup — is on the Cubs to hone in on.
Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy takes it personally if a team is able to pick up something on their pitchers.
“If that happens for us, I’m not mad at the other team,” Hottovy said to the Tribune. “They’re doing what they can to get a competitive advantage. It’s on me as a coach to help fix it and identify what’s wrong, identify how we can make it better. We want to be the best team at controlling that part of the game. It’s everywhere now, so you have to stay on top, and no one’s going to be perfect.”
It’s been a focal point for the Cubs all season. Hottovy said they talked a lot during spring training about controlling the running game, holding runners, not being predictable on pickoffs and varying their times to the plate. He views preventing pitch tipping as another layer to those efforts.
Hottovy told all the Cubs’ pitchers in big-league camp that at some point this season they could expect him to come to them to talk about a pitch they’re tipping. Monday’s theatrics are a reminder of the small margins every team is searching for to swing in their favor.
“It’s the norm now, so being able to have a Plan B or a different setup or something you can go to to combat that is part of the game,” Hottovy said. “And that’s our job as pitching coaches, to make sure that we’re on top of what our guys are doing, that we’re watching video and making sure that we’re in a good place, but also have plans in place when teams do pick up something.”
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