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CLEVELAND —
\nIndians pitcher Mike Clevinger doesn’t know exactly how he’ll react the next time he’s on the mound facing the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n
\nThey cheated, and he doesn’t like cheaters. On Friday night, he took aim at them.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe’ll see,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’ll be fun.”<\/p>\n
\nClevinger has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Astros since their sign-stealing scandal broke earlier this month and rocked baseball, leading to suspensions, managerial firings in Houston, Boston and New York, and blanketing the sport in a net of suspicion as spring training approaches.<\/p>\n
\nOnce the season begins, the Astros will be under more scrutiny and they might have to deal with some high, hard pitches.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI think players will deal with it the way it should be across the league,\u201d Clevinger said. \u201cI don’t think it’s going to be a comfortable few ABs (at-bats) for a lot of those boys, and it shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t be comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAsked what bothered him most about the scandal, Clevinger said, \u201cProbably them accepting an award and cracking a joke about it without an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nClevinger, who went 13-4 last season for Cleveland, has long wondered about Houston’s hitters and their uncanny ability to hit tough pitches. He and former teammate Trevor Bauer raised concerns in the past about the Astros, and the revelation that they were using a camera in center field and banging trash cans to alert teammates of incoming pitches, gave the right-handers some vindication.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it was common knowledge, but it\u2019s been going around the league for a while as far as rumors there\u2019s been a lot more substance involved,\u201d Clevinger said. \u201cIt\u2019s just, we didn\u2019t have the smoking gun … and it finally came out and it was a reiteration of how cocky they were and how they treated other guys around the league. And for that to be going on just struck a chord with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nClevinger said he was confident the Astros’ secrets would eventually leak. It was former Houston pitcher Mike Fiers, now with Oakland, who revealed that Houston used a video feed sent to a monitor near its dugout to decode signs and relay them to hitters.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMe and Trevor Bauer since 2017 have been waiting \u2014 there’s no way they can keep this glued together,\u201d Clevinger said. \u201cThere’s no way everyone’s going to keep their mouth shut. There’s no way they can keep not picking up contracts, not giving free agents money and no one is going to say anything. We knew something was going to happen and sure enough, it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThere’s still a part of Clevinger that wishes he and Bauer weren’t right about their suspicions.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cObviously, we didn’t want it,\u201d he said. \u201cI’d rather me be the hippie conspiracy theorist and him be the (jerk). I’d totally rather it went that way, man, 100%. It sucks that we were right. But it wasn’t like we were just throwing stuff at a wall. There was a lot of stuff we knew that other people didn’t know we knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAnd now that the Astros have been exposed, Clevinger said sign-stealing may be more prevalent than anyone realized.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m not debating that it\u2019s not,\u201d he said. \u201cThe point is we know who it is. People see the repercussions now. I have no idea where it\u2019s going to go from here, whether it\u2019s detrimental enough, but I think there\u2019s enough punishment involved that it\u2019s going to steer teams away from doing it. Hopefully there will be more checks and balances involved in the video department, be it with MLB through each game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe Astros were also fined $5 million, a penalty Clevinger found insulting, and he’s sorry Fiers has been cast as a villain by some for talking about his former team.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat’s he going to do, while he’s wearing their colors going into the playoffs?” Clevinger said. \u201dHe’s got to speak out now. He’s going to have to do it after. It doesn’t matter when he spoke out. It’s the fact that he did it. It had to come to light.”<\/p>\n
\nClevinger didn’t start against the Astros last season, but said during an outing against them in 2018 that he began to wonder if something was amiss.<\/p>\n
\nThe 29-year-old said he threw a 95 mph inside fastball to Houston outfielder Tony Kemp, who pulled it down the line for a hit.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNot that he\u2019s not a good ballplayer, but Tony Kemp\u2019s not the best fastball, high-ball, two-strike hitter,\u201d Clevinger said. \u201cLet alone, pulling it down the line at 95 mph. I knew something was up that game. I had my stuff, but I was fighting for every out I had to get. I knew something was different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe Indians were swept by Houston in the 2018 AL Division Series, but manager Terry Francona isn’t making any excuses about what happened. The Astros beat Cleveland fair and square, he said.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYou can beat as many trash cans as you want,\u201d Francona said. “I think we had two hits off of (Gerrit) Cole and three off of (Justin) Verlander. That wasn\u2019t because of trash cans.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nMore AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/MLB and https:\/\/twitter.com\/AP\u2014Sports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n