Joey Gallo had one of the strangest at-bats you’ll see all year against Yu Darvish. It started in the bottom of the fourth with two outs and a runner on second. Darvish and the catcher were using a long sequence of finger signs instead of PitchCom, which made every pitch feel like a puzzle. The first one was a high fastball, then Gallo demolished a cutter at 113 mph foul into the stands. A fan dodged it with a quick chair-block and someone else gave one of the laziest attempts to catch a ball ever. Then came a curveball Gallo didn’t like, and on the next pitch, things got messy. They crossed signals, Gallo took a fastball, and it drilled the umpire in what looked like his tattoo. The reaction in the crowd? One woman frowned slightly, another missed her mouth with popcorn, and one guy missed the whole thing because he was helping with a necklace.
Darvish apologized, the ump said he was fine, and Gallo tried to reset. But the sign confusion continued. Manny Machado even had to yell from third for them to change the signs. The at-bat dragged on to a full count, and both broadcasts somehow added two mystery cutters that didn’t exist. Baseball Savant showed the correct pitch tracking, which included multiple sliders and curves, all breaking in different directions and mostly staying outside. Gallo didn’t swing at the outside stuff, and that’s where Darvish kept going. On the final pitch, a slider clipped the edge. Gallo thought it was off and let the ump hear it. The ump didn’t back down. So after an 11-pitch slog filled with foul rockets, confusion, pain, and miscommunication, Gallo walked away struck out and frustrated.