Royals

Cleveland fan believes Guardians player stole Royals’ signs in Wednesday’s game

That seems to be an unnatural motion by the Guardians player on second base.
That seems to be an unnatural motion by the Guardians player on second base.

It’s only April, but the Royals probably have seen enough of Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio this season.

Rocchio delivered a walk-off single that helped Cleveland defeat the Royals on Tuesday afternoon.

In the Guardians’ 10-2 win over the Royals on Wednesday, Rocchio made a heads-up play when appeared to allow himself to be hit by a batted ball. Steven Kwan hit a roller to second that was tailor-made for an inning-ending double play, but because the ball hit Rocchio, he was ruled out and Kwan was awarded a single.

@pgrathoff

Did this Guardians player let the ball hit him?

♬ original sound - pgrathoff

Rather than it being the end of the inning, José Ramírez followed with an RBI double.

Royals manager Matt Quatraro argued with the umpires that it was no accident that Rocchio was hit.

“They said it wasn’t intentional,” Quatraro told reporters after the game. “I mean, I said it was an extremely slow hit ball. I don’t know how he couldn’t have done that intentionally.”

Cleveland broke open the game when Ángel Martínez hit a grand slam in the eighth inning off Steven Cruz. Rocchio was on second base and seemed to steal the Royals’ signs. At least that’s what X user G-Men Man believed, and you can see why in this video.

This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 7:12 PM.

Pete Grathoff
The Kansas City Star
From covering the World Series to the World Cup, Pete Grathoff has done a little bit of everything since joining The Kansas City Star in 1997.
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