From all indications, San Francisco Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski wasn’t stealing signs against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday. But he certainly wanted them to think he was.
In the bottom of the second inning with two outs, Yastrzemski hit a double. He danced around on second base and must’ve been yelling something or other, because he very quickly annoyed Cardinals pitcher Johan Oviedo — who clearly believed the Giants outfielder was trying to relay information to the next batter (Wilmer Flores).
The 23-year-old Oviedo stepped off the mound, pulled out a laminated card from his back pocket to presumably change up his signals, and then definitely yelled “shut the f—k up!” at Yastrzemski, who pretended to act bewildered.
After the 5-2 Giants victory, Oviedo told reporters he thought Yastrzemski “was giving some signs,” but admitted “it was a misunderstanding there.” Which is true, though only to an extent. Yastrzemski wasn’t just innocently minding his business! He was very much messing with the 23-year-old pitcher.
“I figured that they thought I was [stealing signals], so I was like, ‘I’m just going to kind of keep rolling with it,” Yastrzemski said after the game. “You’ve got to sell it sometimes. We’re in the entertainment business… It’s like we’re center stage at times, so hopefully the focus was on me instead of on [Flores]. It’s just another way you can try to impact the game from the basepaths to try and get your guy a better pitch to hit.”
Yastrzemski’s efforts, which earned him the f-bomb, unfortunately did not pay off: Flores hit an end-of-inning pop-up to right field. Alas.