A Red Sox iPad suggested Robert Suarez was tipping pitches. The Padres were already on it

New York Times

9 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO — It was the top of the ninth inning Saturday at Petco Park when a not-so-secret yet oft-hidden game within a game spilled into public view.
There, on the San Diego Padres' telecast, was a member of the Boston Red Sox coaching staff, holding an iPad that displayed side-by-side images of Robert Suarez from a previous game. The left side of the screen showed the San Diego closer in his pre-pitch setup before a fastball. The right side showed Suarez in his pre-pitch setup before a changeup. It was not much of a juxtaposition — save for the fact that in the latter frame, a bit more of Suarez's right hand was visible from a center-field angle.
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Later, after a blown save and a walk-off victory in the 10th, Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla checked his phone. His inbox was flooded with notes from strangers.
'I know it was made a big deal,' Niebla said before Monday's 4-1 win against the San Francisco Giants. 'I got 36 DM messages about it. But it's like, 'Yeah, we already know.''
Cameras got an angle of a Red Sox coach showing images of the difference between Padres reliever Robert Suarez's setup when he's about to throw a fastball or a changeup pic.twitter.com/xWoA65Sy4X
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 10, 2025
Yes, Suarez might have been tipping pitches two nights earlier. No, it was not clear that the Red Sox, a savvy team led by a savvy coaching staff, had taken full or even partial advantage. Either way, Niebla said, the Padres and Suarez had been working on certain adjustments for a while.
'The whole year,' Niebla said. 'That's one of our things in spring training where we're like, 'Hey, this is what you do to tip pitches.' And … through the course of the year, when you're working through battles or however you want to put it, some tendencies start showing back up. And we're always cross-checking, cross-checking, cross-checking.
'In the heat of the battle, sometimes that's the last thing (pitchers) might be thinking about. You know, it might show up. But overall, I think we've been really good as a team.'
Niebla, the Padres' own savvy instructor, did not go into great detail discussing those tendencies.
'We're trying to find the right mix,' Niebla said, 'because a lot of the stuff is, like, how his arm swing comes out of his glove, too.'
Suarez, in a separate interview Monday, acknowledged he had recently made adjustments — including since Saturday — but declined to specify what those were.
Meanwhile, the rehashing of a viral moment opened a window into what players and coaches say goes on throughout every game.
'I mean, you could pan in our dugout and look at our dugout, and it's the same thing,' manager Mike Shildt said. 'You could take a picture of anything. … The fact of the matter is it's taking place all the time. Now it's just become more public.'
For close to a decade, Major League Baseball has permitted the in-game, in-dugout use of iPads containing pre-uploaded materials. In 2021, the league updated its tablet-related rules and began uploading video of each at-bat soon after completion. (The video is edited to remove catchers' pre-pitch signals.) Saturday in San Diego, a television broadcast happened to capture an iPad in use during a game, perhaps in unprecedented detail for public consumption.
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Aside from that visual, the inning in question didn't appear all that unusual.
Suarez, the major-league saves leader, took the mound with a one-run lead. Ceddanne Rafaela made soft contact with a changeup and legged out an infield single. After a subsequent strikeout of Connor Wong, Suarez threw a 98.9 mph four-seamer at the top of the strike zone. Roman Anthony, a noted fastball hitter, lined it for an opposite-field double to tie the score. Suarez then got Alex Bregman to pop out against a fastball. Following an intentional walk of left-handed batter Jarren Duran, the right-hander struck out Trevor Story with yet another four-seamer.
Suarez, like so many others, saw the video clip of the Red Sox's iPad soon after the game.
'Regardless, I think the coaches would have been able to let me know, 'Hey, there's something that they might be picking up,'' Suarez said through interpreter Jorge Merlos. 'I think, regardless, even if it would have been after that game, they would have told me, 'Hey, make that adjustment.' But obviously, it was just that one moment specifically where they were able to pick that up on TV.'
Entering Monday, San Diego's pitching staff had the majors' fourth-lowest earned run average (3.63) and lowest relief ERA (3.04). (Red Sox manager Alex Cora, speaking Sunday, called it 'the best bullpen in the big leagues.')
Those numbers might be even more impressive when considering that KinaTrax, a markerless motion-capture technology, enables major-league teams to detect potential tells in real time before relaying them to their dugouts and, eventually, their hitters.
'We're in a society where no one can hide,' Shildt said. 'I mean, just the technologies, everything that's out there, it's being used. It's there. You know, these guys are not machines, but machines are evaluating and overlaying and using (artificial intelligence) and all the different things that take place. And it's something that, clearly, we monitor. We have internal awareness of it. We're looking at our side, (the opponent's) side.
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'I think it's overblown. You can look at it and slow it down, and you can take a picture of it. Go do it in front of 40,000 people in real time and with an athlete that's moving and see how successful you are. I do think there's people and there's teams and players that are good at it, but I also think that even if it's slightly there, it's really hard to pick up in live competition.'
Shildt and Niebla agreed there are times when teams — base runners, in particular — pretend as if they have something on an opposing pitcher or catcher.
'It's like, 'He's relaying from second base!' No, that's a deke,' Niebla said. 'They're bluffing. They want to get in our head. They want us to, like, have to change.' One such ruse played out in late April when Giants catcher Patrick Bailey, after reaching second base against starter Nick Pivetta, looked as if he might be relaying pitches.
Monday, Suarez ensured San Francisco would not have the opportunity for similar hijinks. In his first appearance since Saturday, he jogged in from the bullpen in the bottom of the ninth. He proceeded to retire the side, securing the win and his 33rd save. He did not require the assistance of a dugout tablet.
Pitchers, when they have time in between innings, sometimes use the technology themselves.
'More than anything, it's just seeing what the game is dictating and how guys are batting throughout the game and seeing what pitches they are swinging and missing at,' Suarez said. 'That's really what we're using iPads for.'
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