Just before the final out of World Series Game 4, Louis Varland did something weird.
He committed a balk intentionally. Yep, the Toronto Blue Jays pitcher wanted the Los Angeles Dodgers’ base runner to move up a base.
The Blue Jays led 6-2, and the Dodgers had Max Muncy on second base and Alex Call at the plate.
Varland used the disengagement rule to make this happen. A pitcher is allowed to disengage twice. On the third one, if there’s no out, it’s a balk.
So Varland made three consecutive moves as if to throw to second, never actually throwing. One, two, then three disengagements.
A balk was called, and Muncy moved to third.
MORE: How Blue Jays won World Series Game 4
Why did Louis Varland do an intentional balk?
Varland was trying to prevent stealing of his pitches and signs.
Even with pitches being called over a headset in Varland’s hat with no signals from the catcher, there are still things a runner on second can see.
There’s a chance to see a grip in the glove, and there’s a chance to see where the catcher sets up locationally.
The runner on second can then have a signal to the hitter at home plate.
But that can’t really happen from third base.
And so Varland wanted to do something that moved Muncy to third, out of view of any sign stealing.
With a four-run lead, those 90 feet didn’t matter. Varland just didn’t want the hitter to know what was coming, and so he balked, on purpose.
MORE: Blue Jays have way fewer Canadian players than you’d expect
