Francisco Lindor feels like there was some funny whistling business going on during his New York Mets’ series against the Yankees this weekend.
Lindor crushed three home runs and drove in five runs in his Mets’ 7-6 win against the Yankees on Sunday night. He set off sparks after pretending to whistle while rounding the bases following his second home run.
Last night the Mets thought the Yankees were stealing pitches by whistling so after hitting his second home run tonight Francisco Lindor was doing a whistling motion toward the Yankees as he rounded the bases pic.twitter.com/gZEjss59RM
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 13, 2021
Lindor’s actions preceded a response from Giancarlo Stanton, who homered in the seventh and then had words for Lindor near second base.
The teams then cleared benches:
Giancarlo Stanton hits a home run to tie the game and has some words for Francisco Lindor as he rounds the bases so benches clear pic.twitter.com/l4eAdOI3f8
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 13, 2021
So what’s going on? The Mets were concerned that Saturday’s starter, Taijuan Walker, was tipping his pitches. They suspected the Yankees were communicating the tipped pitches via whistles.
Jonathan Villar told me that he called a mound meeting last night because he thought Taijuan Walker was tipping pitches when the Yankees took a 5-0 lead. He realized during an Aaron Judge at bat that the Yankees dugout seemed to use different whistles to identify pitches.
— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) September 13, 2021
Lindor said after Sunday’s game that he felt something was up.
Francisco Lindor says he's not accusing the #Yankees of stealing signs, "because I'm not 100% certain, but I felt something out of the ordinary was going on. I heard what I heard.''
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 13, 2021
If the Yankees picked up tells from Walker or other Mets pitchers and used whistles to relay them, that would be completely reasonable, so long as no technology was used in the process.
The Mets ended up taking two of three in the series. This was Lindor’s first career three-homer game.
