The Diamondbacks cried foul over sign stealing, but MLB essentially told them there was nothing to complain about. Arizona accused Cubs third-base coach Quintin Berry of relaying Merrill Kelly’s pitches, only for the league to rule that Berry had done nothing illegal. Now, A.J. Pierzynski is piling on, questioning why the Diamondbacks turned a legal baseball tactic into such a heated controversy in the first place.

“He would wiggle his left hand on change-ups or whatever it is. That’s not illegal. When has that ever been illegal?” the ex-MLB star said on his recent Foul Territory podcast. “As long as you’re in the coach’s box, you can do whatever you can do.”

Merrill Kelly allowed just two runs through five innings but believed Cubs third-base coach Quintin Berry was stealing signs and relaying them to hitters. Sign stealing itself is legal in MLB when players or coaches pick up signs or tendencies with their own eyes. It becomes illegal when prohibited technology is used to decode or relay them.

“We just thought that he (Berry) was relaying signs; we thought he had something on my changeup. We thought he was giving, especially to lefties. Every time I was throwing a changeup, we thought he was relaying that,” the pitcher told reporters. “Stealing signs is as old as baseball. I think it’s a little bulls*** when it comes from a coach.”

The Arizona dugout was convinced Berry was tracking Kelly’s glove and signaling hitters. The shouting quickly escalated, pulling players and managers Craig Counsell and Torey Lovullo into the argument.

Officials de-escalated the situation and play resumed. Pierzynski later dismissed the controversy, arguing that Berry’s movements were legal as long as he stayed inside the third-base coach’s box. He said:

“Do jumping jacks in the coach’s box if you think it’ll help your team win; that’s the way I look.”

Erik Kratz, his co-host and someone with experience in MLB disciplinary matters, agreed. “They weren’t breaking any rules in my opinion,” he said.

The umpires stopped the argument, but Arizona never recovered. Already down 2-0 when tensions boiled over, the Diamondbacks went on to lose 7-0. Lovullo later contacted MLB for clarification on Berry’s actions.

And he had much better insight after he talked to Major League Baseball. 

“It was a fantastic conversation,” the D’backs manager said. “The third base coach and the first base coach can do whatever they want, as long as they are inside the dimensions of the base coaching box, so I stand corrected, and I had a chance to call [Counsell], apologized to him, and told him that we were wrong and they were doing everything right.”

Apparently, Counsell didn’t want to hold on to it either. And he had nothing but nice things to say about Lovullo. 

“I think the world of Torey, I think he runs a great ship here,” the Cubs skipper said. “I think he’s done a heck of a job. So I enjoy every conversation I get to have with him. So yeah, he felt like he wanted to do it, and I appreciated it.”

Lovullo later said both teams were simply protecting their turf. Once he and Counsell cleared things up, the controversy was over.

And Kratz emphasized during the podcast that “Quintin Barry was not breaking any rules. He was within the confines of the coach’s box.”

But he ended with a sly dig, mentioning how it has been within the rules for probably more than a decade.

Then the Tables Turned, and the Cubs Had the Rulebook on Their Side

By Wednesday, the Cubs were the ones arguing.

Pete Crow-Armstrong took a large lead off third in the sixth inning of a scoreless game and broke toward home as Eduardo Rodriguez delivered to Michael Busch.

Rodriguez appeared to step off the rubber, but the umpires did not call a balk.

Crow-Armstrong immediately protested, and after the crew huddled and upheld the no-call, Quintin Berry had to hold him back before Craig Counsell joined the argument.

“I saw four umpires miss a pretty obvious play,” Crow-Armstrong said after the 2-0 loss. “Their one job is to get calls right… And they didn’t.”

After the game, crew chief Alfonso Márquez admitted the mistake.

“We just didn’t see it,” he said, adding that video showed Rodriguez had stepped off.

A balk would have sent Crow-Armstrong home and given Chicago a 1-0 lead. Instead, Arizona scored in the bottom of the sixth and went on to win 2-0.

The Cubs lost the final two games and dropped the series 2-1. They now head back to Chicago for a seven-game homestand against the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers.