All the Signs Are There for Maddon

Though Joe Maddon was considered a master sign-stealer when he was the bench coach for the Angels, the Devil Rays manager said he wouldn’t try to use his insight to exploit his former team in his first game against the Angels on Monday.

“I shouldn’t even try to steal signs because I’ll kill way too many brain cells trying to figure that out,” Maddon said before the game. “I would rather preserve what few brain cells I have left.”

Barely two batters into Tampa Bay’s 4-0 victory, it seemed Maddon had bluffed. Chone Figgins led off the first inning with a single and took off for second on an 0-and-1 pitch to Orlando Cabrera.

But Maddon called a pitchout, and catcher Toby Hall threw out Figgins, who ranks second in the American League with 21 stolen bases. The play saved at least one run, because Vladimir Guerrero and Garret Anderson followed Cabrera’s strikeout with singles before Kendry Morales grounded out to end the inning.

“Sometimes you’re going on situations,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Joe throws things out there too, just to let you know you can’t have a free ride, and he happened to catch us.”

Maddon swore there was no subterfuge involved and his call was “a totally lucky guess.”

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Maddon will always remember his first game against the Angels, not just because the Devil Rays won, and not just because his reunion attracted about 25 reporters and broadcasters to his pregame news briefing, though that was pretty impressive.

“So, we’re in the first game of the playoffs here, we should be OK,” Maddon said as he greeted the horde, which was four times the size of most pregame gatherings.

The game was also memorable because Maddon didn’t see all of it in person; he was ejected for the first time as manager in the fifth inning for arguing a check-swing call on Joey Gathright. Third base umpire Doug Eddings ruled strike on appeal, but home plate umpire Paul Schrieber tossed Maddon.

“We’ve had a lot of close calls go against us, so I thought I’d make a statement,” Maddon said. “I was upset.” Schrieber “did the right thing by throwing me out.”

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Josh Paul and Eddings were in the same stadium Monday, but that didn’t put Paul, the former Angel who is now a Devil Rays backup, in any mood to discuss the controversial third-strike non-call on A.J. Pierzynski in Game 2 of the American League championship series in October.

“It’s over,” Paul said. “I’m not talking about it.”

Though the Angels have not publicly criticized Paul, some have said privately that Paul should have just tagged Pierzynski to be sure of the out. Maddon, however, still defends Paul.

“He should not have tagged him ... because he was out,” Maddon said. “The call was made. There was nothing to dispute.”

Paul rarely played in his two years in Anaheim, and that play is all most fans will remember of him.

“I’m not going to let it define my career; my career is not over yet,” Paul said.