Bauer Chose Indians Blue Jerseys to Hide Blood

When you could be faced with rule violations by pitching with a bloody finger what do you do?

Try and hide the blood as best you can.

That was Trevor Bauer’s strategy going into Game 3 of the 2016 American League Championship Series in Toronto when he decided that the Cleveland Indians would be wearing their alternate navy blue jerseys instead of their usual road greys. This according to a post made on MLB.com yesterday.

From MLB.com:

So why did Bauer choose the alternate combination of navy blue jersey with Wahoo up top? Superstition (the Indians had worn Wahoo every game this postseason)? Trolling?

Neither, in fact.

“Blood,” Bauer said, “doesn’t show on blue.”

A smart move, but it didn’t work.

In case you’ve missed the news, Bauer tore open the pinky finger on his pitching hand on a drone he was fiddling with just one day before his scheduled start in Game 2. Pushed back a day to allow for stitches and any healing, Bauer entered Game 3 last night knowing he could rip open those stitches at any moment. Wearing a dark jersey would make it easier to disguise any blood that may have trickled out of that wound.

Unfortunately for Bauer the trickle turned out to be more of a dripping faucet, after facing just a handful of hitters in the first inning blood could be seen coming out of Bauer’s finger onto the pitching mound and his grey pants.

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Sure enough, he quickly started to wipe it off onto his dark blue jersey where it hid quite well. The grey pants not so much. It didn’t take long for Blue Jays skipper John Gibbons to alert the umpire of the issue and Bauer was quickly out of the game before even finishing the first inning.

Cleveland would go on to win the game with a good chunk of their bullpen coming out to close out the 9-innings of work necessary to finish it off. The victory put the Indians up three-games-to-nothing with a chance to sweep their way into the World Series this afternoon.

So… how long before Cooperstown comes calling for the bloody uniform?