The Yankees Caught Mariners Closer Andres Munoz Tipping Pitches Last Night And Comically Relayed The Signs To Home Plate Via Jumping Jacks To Help Pull Off a Wild Comeback Win

Justin Casterline. Getty Images.

It's been tough sledding for the Yankees of late. Their annual June swoon seeped into July and caused all sorts of despair within the fanbase. Boy did they need a good series at home against the Mariners, but as they went for the sweep on Thursday the bats were met by the brick wall that was Bryan Woo. The Mariners righty twirled seven dominant, no-hit innings before blinking in the 8th and giving up a couple runs. Still, the Yankees found themselves down 5-3 heading into the 9th with elite closer Andres Munoz getting the ball. He entered the night with a sparkling 1.06 ERA and a trip already booked to Atlanta next week for the All Star Game. This was not going to be an easy mountain to climb. 

Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger got them headed in the right direction with singles to begin the frame. That got a man to second base which is where the real fun started. The Yankees picked something up on Munoz quick and knew every time he was throwing a slider. It's not easy to do this now with pitch-com being a thing, but glove positioning or obvious ball gripping (pause) can give it away. They had Munoz's tell and comically did not care who knew it. The signal to the hitter was basically a jumping jack from second base. You wanna talk discreet? This was the complete opposite of that. They might as well have shot a flare into the sky. 

They were even doing it at first base. 

Cal Raleigh came out to talk to Munoz and you thought alright now they'll address it, but nope the same shit kept happening afterwards. Munoz threw 31 pitches last night, 16 of those were sliders and 12 were fastballs. He generated one single whiff off those pitches and that came from Volpe who can't hit a beach ball these days. Pretty much the Yankees were able to identify everything that was coming out of the M's closer last night and it led to them tying the game. 

Now I know what idiots are gonna say and that's the Yankees cheated to tie the game. That's just not the case. Picking up a tell from a pitcher is not illegal, in fact it's been going for decades, if not centuries. If you're dumb enough to give away what you're throwing to the naked eye then you suffer the consequences. What got the Astros in "trouble" was that they used technology to zoom in on the catcher to relay the signs from the clubhouse tunnel to steal the pitch. That's not remotely close to what was happening here. 

After a clean 10th from Devin Williams, Judge lifted a ball to center and allowed Volpe to tag from 3rd to win the game.

What a slide from Volpe to avoid the "tag" from Cal Raleigh.

I threw tag in quotes there because what the fuck was Raleigh doing there? This guy is your MVP because he plays catcher? 

Big Yankees sweep, big shout out to the Mariners for never thinking about changing a thing up with Munoz. Maybe next time we get somebody's tell we come up with a little more sly way of telling the hitter. 

P.S. That's a rough one for Dave