'Waste of my time to talk about': Astros manager Dusty Baker responds to Ryan Tepera's cheating suggestion
There have been no credible accusations, and no evidence, of illegal sign-stealing by the Houston Astros since 2018, when a system the club designed to electronically pilfer signals from opponents was last used, according to a Major League Baseball investigation.
That's not going to prevent opponents from airing accusations – even in a possibly ill-advised attempt to gain an emotional edge in a playoff series.
Chicago White Sox reliever Ryan Tepera was the first to go there, proclaiming after his club's 12-6, Game 3 victory that the result was partly attributable to this American League Division Series shifting from Houston's Minute Maid Park - where the club's documented misdeeds occurred in 2017 and '18 - to Guaranteed Rate Park in Chicago.
"They've had a reputation of doing some sketchy stuff over there," Tepera said after pitching two perfect innings, striking out three, in Game 3. "We can say it's a little bit of a difference. I think you saw the swings and misses tonight compared to the first two games at Minute Maid."
Uh, sort of?
The Astros did strike out a season-high 16 times in Game 3, after striking out a combined 16 times in Games 1 and 2. Yet their swings and misses only rose from an average of 16 in the first two games to 22 in Game 3.
And Michael Kopech, whose 13.4 strikeouts per nine innings ranks second on the White Sox, did not pitch in the first two games. He struck out five in 2 ⅓ innings of relief – and also gave up four hits and three runs.
In a sense, Tepera undermined he and his fellow pitchers' Game 3 accomplishments.
The Astros? They're used to this by now, and largely unbothered.
"I don't care nothing about perception," manager Dusty Baker said after Monday's Game 4 was postponed due to rain. "You know what I mean? I care about results, the happiness of my team, and winning baseball games. And there's nothing you can do about perception because perception is whatever you perceive it to be, and so everybody doesn't have the same perception of every situation or everybody's attitude.
"So it's kind of a waste of my time to even talk about it further."
As for Tepera?
"I never even, you know, heard his name before, you know, until we played the White Sox," says Baker.
Baker was hired after manager A.J. Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow were fired in January 2020 after MLB's investigation followed a published report in The Athletic that detailed their role in, and knowledge of, the sign-stealing scheme. Many of the players involved -most notably George Springer, Josh Reddick and Carlos Beltran - have moved on. Their replacements - such as Michael Brantley, Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez - have taken the brunt of the boos along with the protagonists who remain.
"Whatever works. Like, it's all good," third baseman Alex Bregman said Monday. Bregman was a rookie in 2017 and a beneficiary of the scheme.
"We're just focused on winning games. That's it."
While catcher Martin Maldonado – an Astro in 2018 and back with this club – tweeted his acknowledgement of Tepera's comments "always good to get a extra motivation," he said, Baker said he wouldn't aim to leverage Tepera's suspicions into fuel.
"I don't think anybody thrives on it. I mean, everybody thrives on love," says Baker, 72. "They don't thrive on hate or thrive on whatever people are saying. So part of my job here is -- and part of the job of the city of Houston is to at least get love when you are at home. You know what I mean?"
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Astros-White Sox: Dusty Baker responds to Ryan Tepera cheating allegation
