HOUSTON _ Rays starter Tyler Glasnow acknowledged it was "pretty obvious" he was tipping his pitches during the rough first inning that basically decided Thursday's game,
He said, and manager Kevin Cash confirmed, that it had previously been an issue, which Glasnow said is tied to the different height at which he holds his glove when throwing a fastball and curveball.
"It's kind of a rhythm and timing thing that is kind of hard to change even if you know you're doing it," Glasnow said after the Rays' 6-1 loss in Game 5 of the AL division series. Especially, Cash said, at such a critical juncture. "It's just tough to make those in-game adjustments," Cash said.
Glasnow gave up hits to the first four Astros, and five of the first six, in the four-run first. After the fourth hit, by Alex Bregman, Glasnow said he started to think something was "a little weird."
He left the game in the third, and quickly figured out the issue, though also wanted to make sure the Astros hitters got credit for what they did.
"When I came in and checked my phone there were a lot of people asking me about it. I went and looked (at the video) and it was pretty obvious," he said. "It's something that I've done in the past, and some starts it's worse than others. Today it was relatively obvious.
"I don't know if that was it. I'm not going to say that's why I pitched bad. I'm not going to do that. They're a really good lineup. They're very good hitters and they got good swings."
The Astros, naturally, claimed to be totally unaware of any pitch tipping.
"No, no, no," Bregman said. "He's as tough to face as anybody. I think if you went around and asked everybody on our team, it was just a team approach today. It was just one at-bat after another. I think (George) Springer's at-bat to lead off the game to give us that first guy on was one of the biggest hits of our season. Then you see (Michael) Brantley do it, and Springer go first to third, and use our athleticism we have.
"And then Altuve gets a big hit to drive in the first run, break the ice. And then Brantley went first to third and that made my job easy hitting a fly ball, and was fortunate it stayed on the line, actually, and found some grass. But the ball that Glasnow throws, that cutter, the four-seam cutter that he throws is unbelievable. His breaking ball goes from your head to your toes quick. So I feel like with him you just had to pick a pitch and try to put a pretty good swing on it.
