Sonny Gray touched his neck a lot on Wednesday night, and by the end of the game a chunk of baseball’s internet had convicted him of cheating.
The clips spread fast during Boston’s 9-2 loss to the Yankees. One viral post summed up the case: “Sonny Gray asks for a new ball and then immediately touches his neck. He was doing this all game.” From there came the pine tar accusations, the “how is this allowed” posts and even NBA guard Josh Hart piling on the Red Sox.
Here is the problem with all of it. There is no evidence.
What Is Actually Known
No umpire was reported to have found anything on Gray. He was not ejected, not warned and not disciplined. Neither Gray nor the Red Sox nor Major League Baseball has said a word about the accusation, because nothing official ever happened.
What exists is a 36-year-old pitcher with a nervous habit, filmed in high definition during an elimination game, in front of an audience primed to believe the worst about the team that was losing.
Starters get inspected routinely in the modern game. Any theory where Gray was using a foreign substance in plain view, between pitches, in a nationally televised playoff game, requires the umpiring crew to have simply not looked. That is a lot of weight for a neck to carry.
The Actual Scandal Was the Hook
Lost in the substance talk is the decision that cost Boston the game. Gray was pulled in the fifth inning after 70 pitches, having allowed two earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts over four and two-thirds innings.
Seventy pitches. In a win-or-go-home game. From a starter who went 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA in the regular season over 29 starts, throwing 169 innings with 149 strikeouts and a 1.148 WHIP.
Manager Chad Tracy made that call, and it drew far more criticism from people who actually watched the game than the neck did.
Gray Was Furious, and He Said So
He did not address the cheating noise. He addressed the thing that mattered.
“I felt good. I felt crisp. I felt sharp. I felt like I was just out there competing,” Gray said.
Then he made a claim most pitchers would not put on the record: “I’m the best pitcher in the American League third time through the order. I think that’s a fact.”
And the part that should worry Boston heading into an offseason: “I would have liked to have been trusted in that moment. I would have liked to live or die with me in that moment.”
Boston Had Bigger Problems
The Red Sox were swept. They scored two runs in the clincher after being shut out 9-0 in Game 1, where Cam Schlittler struck out 10 over six and a third scoreless innings. Max Fried then held them to one run in six innings on Wednesday.
A team that loses a series by a combined 18-2 did not lose because its starter’s grip was too good. Chasing a conspiracy theory about a neck is a way of avoiding the simpler explanation, which is that New York’s pitching was better and Boston’s manager did not trust his own ace with a fifth inning.
Gray deserves an apology from the people who spent Wednesday calling him a cheat. He will not get one.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.