Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
The Miami Marlins defeated the Philadelphia Phillies Monday night 5-1 against Cole Hamels, who dropped to 1-7 this season.
The Marlins came away with three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to seal the deal, thanks to timely RBI hits from Justin Ruggiano and Nick Green. However, there is controversy behind the win, as if the Marlins needed any more negative publicity against them this season.
Popular sabermetrics website Fangraphs received notice that Marlins starting pitcher Alex Sanabia was shown on video spitting on the baseball numerous times to gain an advantage during his outing. Sanabia went 6.1 innings, striking out three batters and only allowing one run on seven Phillies hits.
https://twitter.com/DCameronFG/status/336719995369316352
If this proves to be true, the Marlins will be facing some major consequences here. What is Sanabia thinking? Is he thinking that he is not actually going to get caught? Someone somewhere would have caught it, and now that they have, I’m sure that MLB will pursue further investigation on the matter, especially considering that the video source was from MLB.com.
This event comes after Boston Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz was using sunscreen and rosin to add a bite to his pitches as well, and was accused by pitchers-turned-broadcasters Jack Morris and Dirk Hayhurst of using a spitball.
Pitchers have been good in baseball this year but for some, maybe cheating is what works best.
Ryan Gaydos is a MLB columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, “like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
