Craig Kimbrel has thrown nearly 600 innings in his big league career, accomplishing incredible things along the way. But there is one thing he has never done: Kimbrel has never balked.
Until last night.
With Ben Gamel on second base and two outs in a three-run game, Kimbrel went to the rubber, seemed uncomfortable with something, stepped off, went back to the rubber, stepped off again, and it was clear that something was up. By the end, Willson Contreras wasn’t even giving signs, and Kimbrel was pointing to third base, like, hey, didn’t I just balk?
Watch it play out:
It’s clear that either Kimbrel and Contreras were having issues with the series of signs they run when there’s a guy on second base (remember their cross-up from earlier in the week, which got Contreras decked on the wrist by an unexpected fastball?); or they were annoyed that Gamel was stealing signs. Since that cross-up just happened, I’m thinking it was probably the former, and the two are going to have to get on the same page, since the freebie balk isn’t always going to be available.
By sending Gamel to third, Contreras and Kimbrel could just go back to the normal, easy signs, and it was a strikeout to end the game.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this involving the Cubs, by the way. Remember when Kenley Jansen intentionally balked Jason Heyward to third base because of sign-stealing concerns? That was funny, and even more deliberate, as Jansen told the world he was balking and then he did.
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