Yankees Catch Mariners Tipping Pitches

The New York Yankees swept the Seattle Mariners in their recent series, ending in a tight 6-5 win in extra innings, thanks in part to pitch tipping from the Mariners' reliever.

Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo made it through seven scoreless innings, preserving a 5-0 lead heading into the eighth inning before it all went sideways.

Catcher Cal Raleigh, who leads the league in home runs, pointed out that the Yankees had caught on to pitcher Andrés Muñoz tipping pitches, contributing to their surprising comeback. Muñoz had taken over in the ninth inning, when the Yankees tied the game up.

“He was tipping it every time at second base,” Raleigh said, per Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty of the Athletic. “Obviously, they weren’t making it very discreet. It’s part of the game. It’s our job. We should have known about that going into the series. That made it really hard there at the end.”

Raleigh went on to explain that he tried to communicate this to Muñoz somehow from behind the plate, but didn't want to distract him in a challenging moment in the game.

“Yeah, you try to do as much as you can without trying to distract him from what’s happening at the plate,” Raleigh said. “That’s something that we will have to figure out in the next couple of days for sure.”

Yankees catcher Austin Wells hit the clutch single off Muñoz in the bottom of the ninth to score Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham and tie the game. Wells did not mention the pitch tipping, and attributed his success to the previous five batters.

“I think I was up sixth that inning,” Wells said. “So I had five great at-bats before me to let me get up there. Those guys gave me a lot of confidence to go up there and trust I was gonna get a pitch to hit."

The Yankees will play the Chicago Cubs over the weekend, beginning on Friday at 7:05 p.m.

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