A monitor in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ dugout at Oracle Park in San Francisco showed a live television feed during the first inning of Monday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants, with manager Torey Lovullo saying on Tuesday that he quickly informed umpires about the technical snafu.
Arizona lost 6-1.
Lovullo said he alerted crew chief Dan Bellino about the live feed to make sure there was no misunderstanding about possible cheating amid an MLB crackdown in the wake of the Houston Astros’ cheating scandal.
Photo: AFP
The Astros used live TV feeds to steal opposing teams’ signs on the way to winning the 2017 World Series championship and part of the subsequent season.
Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and then-manager A.J. Hinch were suspended for the 2020 season, and the team were fined US$5 million and forfeited their first and second-round picks in 2020 and last year.
Lovullo also told Bellino he had instructed his players not to look at the two monitors in one corner of the dugout. The two screens typically show feeds of the two clubs’ bullpens, but something was awry with the control center for one of the monitors on Arizona’s side.
“We have zero control over them. Zero,” Lovullo said. “It’s all in-house, upstairs, the play-by-play. After the first pitch it popped on as a live feed — we had a live game feed inside of our dugout, so everybody was trying to turn it off. I said: ‘Stay away from it, it’s like fire, don’t even go near it,’ because if something happens where somebody sees us trying to turn it off and there’s a live feed you’re going to get accused of something.”
Rather than stop play, saying “I felt that was unfair,” Lovullo waited until the conclusion of the inning.
Carson Kelly struck out looking to end the inning on a ball down the middle of the plate, which Lovullo said at least showed nobody was cheating.
The monitor was switched to the bullpen feed in the bottom of the first.
“It’s a very, very hot topic in baseball,” Lovullo said. “I don’t ever want to be accused of cheating. This organization does things with integrity and I just wanted to make sure I was as honest as possible.”
Separately, the MLB suspended Pittsburgh Pirates’ Rodolfo Castro for one game on Tuesday after he left his cellphone in his back pocket when he went to bat during a game last week.
The penalty, which included an undisclosed fine, had been set to take effect on Tuesday night when the Pirates hosted the Boston Red Sox. The 23-year-old Castro appealed and can play until the process is complete.
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