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The Milwaukee Brewers had one foot in the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies.
They led the New York Mets 2-0 entering the top of the ninth inning and superstar closer Devin Williams was set to enter the game. But what happened next was far from expected. Williams imploded, allowing four earned runs, including three on a home run by Pete Alonso, to send the Brewers packing and the Mets to the next round.
Williams had a sub-2.00 ERA in nearly 150 appearances over the last three seasons, so the collapse was a complete and total shock. But as it turns out, there was an easy explanation.
Williams was tipping his pitches.
@jomboymedia Pete Alonso knew what pitch was coming from Devin Williams #mets #mlb #baseball #sports #homerun #petealonso
Devin Williams Tipped Pitches To Mets With Setup On Mound
Jake O’Brien, better known as Jomboy, broke down Williams’ setup in a TikTok video released early Friday morning.
What Jomboy revealed was that Williams held his glove differently when he threw his fastball compared to when he threw his changeup.
When Williams threw his fastball, he held the ball deeper in his glove and held his glove closer to his chin. But when he threw the changeup, he held the ball farther back in the glove, with the glove positioned farther away from his chin.
So Mets hitters, and most notably Alonso, seemingly took note of these differences and knew what pitches were coming.
Williams almost exclusively throws those two pitches. So if a team were able to figure out which one was coming, they would have a huge advantage to figuring out the normally nasty right-hander.
The Mets appeared to have cracked the code.
A similar incident occurred in the 2022 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros.
Astros starter Lance McCullers seemingly tipped his pitches with his setup and the Phillies responded by belting five home runs off him in 4 2/3 innings en route to a 7-0 victory.
It’s an easy thing for Williams to fix. And his pitching coach likely would have caught it on film had Jomboy not. But it’s a little too late to save the Brewers’ season.