PHOENIX — Monday night’s game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs had the kind of edge that can turn a routine inning into a whole conversation. According to The Athletic’s Aug. 25, 2026 report by Johnny Flores Jr., the tension centered on whether Cubs third-base coach Quintin Berry was relaying signs to Chicago hitters from the coach’s box.
Merrill Kelly didn’t hide how he felt about it. The Athletic quotes the Diamondbacks starter saying, “Stealing signs is as old as baseball,” while adding that he thought it crossed a line when it came from a coach. He drew a distinction between a runner on second base trying to pick up something from the pitcher and a coach working from outside the field of play, calling the latter “a little bush league.”
Kelly also said the issue seemed to involve his changeup, telling The Athletic, “Every time I was throwing a changeup, we felt like he was relaying that.” That’s the kind of accusation that can change the mood of a game fast, because it puts the focus not just on execution, but on trust and gamesmanship. Baseball has always lived in that gray area between savvy and overreach, and this was one of those moments where both dugouts clearly felt the heat.
The Athletic’s report says the Diamondbacks and Cubs benches had words for each other, and that Arizona manager Torey Lovullo stepped in with a mound visit in the fifth inning to try to calm things down. Lovullo’s message, as quoted by The Athletic, was simple: everyone needed to refocus and let him handle what he was supposed to handle.
That’s usually the part fans remember after a night like this: not just the pitch count or the score, but the flashpoint that made everybody stop and stare. In this case, the stare-down came after Kelly had exited the game and looked back toward the Cubs’ bench, a small but unmistakable sign that the moment had already spilled beyond the mound.
For a rivalry game in late August, it was the kind of dust-up that reminds you how quickly baseball’s unwritten rules can become the loudest thing in the park. And once a pitcher starts talking about signs, everybody else tends to lean in and listen.
