Things got a little testy during Saturday’s game between the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox. That led to Red Sox announcer Will Middlebrooks pointing out the irony of what caused the fight, the Astros believing that the Red Sox were stealing signs.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Houston pitcher Héctor Neris got concerned that Trevor Story, the second-base runner, might be relaying tipped pitches to the hitter. From second base, a runner can conceivably — and legally — identify a pitcher’s grip and relay the incoming pitch to the hitter. With that in mind, Neris intentionally balked, sending to third base and essentially removing the tipped pitch concern.

After Neris recorded the third out, he began to yell at Red Sox third base coach Kyle Hudson, prompting the benches to clear. While nothing physical materialized, Middlebrooks got a shot in at the Astros.

“I had a feeling this was gonna happen,” Middlebrooks said. “Imagine the Astros being mad about stealing signs. But guess what, that’s part of the game, when you can see the grip in a glove.”

“Imagine the Astros being mad about stealing signs. But guess what? That’s part of the game. When you can see the grip in a glove.”

– Will Middlebrookspic.twitter.com/TcI27SPy24

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 2, 2025

For those unfamiliar with Houston’s sign-stealing scandal, the Astros used electronics to steal signs from a catcher, then relayed those signs to the hitter. Some of the Astros acknowledged doing this in 2017, when Houston beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. That form of sign-stealing was illegal and played a big role in PitchCom becoming part of baseball a few years later.

Astros fans might point out some hypocrisy here. Boston’s current manager, Alex Cora, was on Houston’s coaching staff in 2017. Cora. Before the 2020 season, Cora left the Red Sox, whom he’d managed for the previous two years, though he was re-hired for the 2021 season. Alex Bregman, who was heavily involved in the Astros scandal, is now on the Red Sox. Additionally, Mookie Betts has acknowledged that some of the Red Sox used illegal tactics to steal signs on the way to their championship in 2018. So, this might be a little bit of a pot calling the kettle black situation. But truthfully, it doesn’t matter.

A runner on second base, spotting the grip of a pitcher and relaying to the hitter, has been going on for as long as baseball has been played. More importantly, it’s never been illegal. And as Middlebrooks explained, it’s the responsibility of the pitcher to avoid tipping his pitches.

“A lot of guys that throw split-fingers a lot, you can pick the grip out of their glove,” he said. “This is not cheating. This is part of the game. If you don’t like it, you hide your grip better. This is just how it works. All teams do this. If you’re gonna show the grip in your glove, the team is going to take advantage of that. He didn’t like it, took exception, started barking at the third-base coach because Trevor Story was already gone. Pretty tired.”