On Thursday, the New York Mets were able to overcome the odds and defeat the Milwaukee Brewers in a winner-take-all Game 3 matchup in the Wild Card Round thanks to a four-run ninth inning off of former All-Star closer Devin Williams. And while the comeback was happening, Oakland Athletics broadcaster Dallas Braden came up with an explanation for Williams’ collapse.
On top of his broadcasting responsibilities, Braden also hosts the Baseball Is Dead podcast along with co-host Jared Carrabis. The show held a live stream to react to Thursday’s Game 3 matchup, which featured a ton of shock and awe of the Mets’ unbelievable comeback to advance to the NLDS.
However, Braden, a former MLB pitcher, wasn’t as shocked as everyone else in the room. He caught onto what in his eyes was Williams inadvertently tipping his pitches to the Mets.
“Yeah, I think Devin Williams is tipping his pitches,” said Braden before pulling up a stream of the game on his laptop to point out exactly what Williams was doing. “Watch this, watch this.”
Braden was then asked by someone in the room to describe how pitches end up being tipped.
“Yeah, you’re looking for their out pitch and then their fastball. And you’re going through certain steps, certain benchmarks that you’re looking for. And you are comparing each one of those. You’re just… You have the ability to run simulations right next to each other. And now you can pick (it) up. You are going through that exact checklist. Whether it is glove height, distance away from the body, tilt of the glove. There is so many different things. So many different things you look at.”
Our man Dallas Braden was ALL over Devin Williams’ pitch-tipping last night: pic.twitter.com/E6EGV9KZIp
— Baseball Is Dead (@baseballisdead_) October 4, 2024
Braden didn’t reveal what he saw from Williams that may have been tipping off the Mets batters. But interestingly, Braden wasn’t the only one who shared the opinion that the Mets may have known what pitches were coming.
James O’Brien, better known as “Jomboy” of Jomboy Media, posted a seven-minute breakdown video of the top of the ninth inning where he detailed that he saw Williams holding his glove slightly differently on his changeup and his fastball, which MLB veteran Trevor Plouffe also saw when asked by O’Brien.
Trust the Trevor’s. I ran it by @trevorplouffe first to confirm it’s there.
And watch this awesome video by @IamTrevorMay on how small tips can be. https://t.co/YRX1X4zjjO pic.twitter.com/QxH1NRVgB2
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) October 4, 2024
You can definitely see a bit of a difference in the glove positioning from Williams in the picture shared by Jomboy on X. So Braden very well could have been onto something while watching the game live.
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.