What might have appeared as a bit of chaos on Rogers Centre's field actually offered a bit of unexpected education for Xander Bogaerts.
In the middle of Hirokazu Sawamura's appearance against the Blue Jays, the PitchCom unit resting in the cap of the reliever started going a bit haywire, limiting his communication with catcher Kevin Plawecki.
That's when Bogaerts sprung into action.
The Red Sox shortstop ran in from his position and quickly made a trade with Sawamura, handing over his speaker while taking what both players thought was a broken unit. It turns out rumors of the equipment's demise was greatly exaggerated.
When Bogaerts went back to his position he started hearing some very unfamiliar verbiage.
"I didn’t know his was in Japanese," the shortstop told WEEI.com. "I didn’t know they worked like that. He was like, ‘I can’t hear it.’ He couldn’t hear his, so I told him to borrow mine and I took his. Then I’m starting to hear it’s in a different language. His was in Japanese and mine was in English."
It was in those few minutes Bogaerts became fluent in one Japanese word.
"The split-finger. That's what I recognized," he said. "It had this weird sound that sounded like a split. So I figured it was a split-fingered. Every time he threw it that was it. It just sounded like that. I just learned that one word. Just the one pitch. I knew that was his pitch. Every time I heard that weird noise."
As for the merits of the PitchCom system - which is being embraced more and more by Red Sox pitchers with each passing day - Bogaerts is on board.
"Yeah, it’s good," he explained. "I feel like it makes it go faster, too. Less confusion. 'Curveball. Inside.' It’s simple. For the fielders, it’s a lot easier."
