Baltimore Orioles vs Chicago White Sox: 3 players to watch

Kevin Gausman, RHP

With Dylan Bundy’s wild inconsistency over the past few weeks, there’s no doubt that Gausman is the ace of the Orioles rotation. The righty has three wins, a 3.88 ERA and 55.2 innings pitched, all team-leading figures.

And yet, a funny thing happened last Thursday — Gausman seemed to completely forget how to hold baserunners. After not giving up a single steal in his first eight starts of the year, the Colorado native watched helplessly as the Red Sox swiped five bags, a season-high for both teams.

Gausman was surprised by the Sox’s success on the basepaths — in fact, he seemed to imply that they may have been stealing signs in some way. Per Rich Dubroff of PressBox:

"“I thought it was weird that two of the three times they stole on me, I was picking [off],” Gausman said. “It kind of raises some eyebrows as to how they knew and those types of things, but that’s all on me.”"

It’s a classic interview answer — Gausman took responsibility for the steals, but only after insinuating that the Red Sox may have had some special intel. Whatever the Sox did to get the jump on Gausman, it didn’t last for the rest of the series; they stole just one base over the final three games.

Was Boston stealing signs? Does Gausman have a tell? Or did the Red Sox simply luck out in taking an aggressive approach? We may get some answers when he makes his next start on Tuesday.