:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/32453711/20120404_mje_su8_883.0.jpg)
Braves starter Aaron Harang was beat down at the hands of the Marlins on Wednesday night. His ERA jumped by over two points when he allowed nine runs over 4-2/3 innings, leading Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez to wonder if the Marlins were stealing signs.
"You got two guys looking at their bullpen. I'm calling (bullpen coach) Eddie (Perez), ‘Eddie do you see anything?' I'm looking at Gattis, thinking he's maybe tipping his pitches. Carlos (Tosca) is looking in the bench over there, maybe somebody is whistling or something."
Gonzalez said he changed signs five times during the course of Harang's outing and went to multiple signs even with no runners on base. The hits kept coming regardless.
Atlanta changed their signs multiple times, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Carroll Rogers, but Harang kept getting whupped. Something had to be afoot anyway, though, right? Maybe the Marlins had something more sophisticated than whistling going on. Like, say, a camera hidden in this:
That would be ridiculous, though. That thing is a glorified noisemaker stuck behind the Marlins' outfield wall, and high-powered offense would only draw attention to it. Maybe that's what makes it the perfect crime, though:
Gonzalez was laughing when he told the story Thursday afternoon in the Braves dugout, describing how the Braves went so far as to look at the sculpture in left center field, wondering if there was somebody hiding in there with a camera.
I'm disappointed there was no hidden camera or camera man in the sculpture, because it means Jeffrey Loria didn't use his love of art to trick everyone into allowing his shiny new ballpark to include a garish sculpture with a hidden compartment for ill deeds. That would be some cartoonish, next-level wrongdoing, or, exactly the kind of thing we should expect from a shady owner like Loria.
...there's a camera in there, isn't there? Check the flamingos' eyes, Fredi! The eyes!
The eyes.