With the Toronto Blue Jays fighting for the AL East lead and the Boston Red Sox squarely in the mix for an AL Wild Card spot, Wednesday’s matchup between the two teams naturally featured a ton of passion on both sides. And this made for an eventful broadcast for Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez on the call of the game over on Sportsnet.
It was a frustrating night for the Blue Jays, who were utterly outmatched by Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet throughout his eight innings of work on the mound.
That very frustration began to boil over for the Blue Jays in the bottom of the seventh inning when star slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. struck out looking on a pitch that appeared to hit the inside corner of the strike zone. Guerrero Jr. would protest the strike call, which ultimately resulted in him getting ejected by home-plate umpire Gabe Morales.
On pitch into the next at-bat of the inning, Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins would join Guerrero Jr. in the Blue Jays dugout after continuing to argue the strike call from the dugout.
The Blue Jays pitching staff would show their own frustrations in the top of the eighth inning. But interestingly, it wasn’t because of Gabe Morales’ strike zone.
With two runners on and no outs in the inning, Berrios, seemingly sensing that Red Sox runner Romy Gonzalez may have been relaying signs to the hitter at the plate from second base, stepped off and shared what appeared to be some choiced words for both Gonzalez and Red Sox third base coach Kyle Hudson, who he may have believed was in on relaying his pitch signs.
On the call of the moment, Shulman and Martinez explained to fans watching at home that sign stealing is something that several teams believe the Red Sox have been doing throughout the 2025 season.
“I think Berrios is saying to Romy Gonzalez, ‘Stop giving away location or pitches.’ Jose is thinking that the Red Sox have something on him,” said Shulman.
“And they have a reputation for that,” added Martinez. “Coaches, they are supposed to be in the coaches box. And neither one of them are close to it. Hudson at third base and Flores at first base. Berrios sensed that someone was relaying pitches, location or something. He turned around and addressed it with Gonzalez.”
“He’s also either talking to the runner at first base or the first base coach,” added Shulman. “He’s talking to a couple of different people.”
Sign stealing is of course not illegal in baseball if done directly by the players on the field and not with the use of any technological aids. But given the checkered past of the Red Sox in the past, using their video replay room to steal signs from opposing pitchers and catchers in 2018, their World Series championship season, there is obviously a negative connotation when it comes to the organization stealing signs, legal or not.
The Red Sox would go on to win Wednesday’s matchup 7-1, moving one step closer to clinching a postseason spot in the competitive AL Wild Card race. Meanwhile, the loss was a crushing one for the Blue Jays, who are now tied atop the AL East with the New York Yankees, who won against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
Clearly, both Shulman and Martinez saw the possible sign stealing situation as a big enough deal to serve as a talking point on the Sportsnet broadcast, regardless of whether the Red Sox were stealing signs legally or not. As for whether it played a difference in the end result on Wednesday, that is certainly up for interpretation.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.