Written by Nino Colla

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On Monday night, Cincinnati and Cleveland engaged in a offensive slugfest. Unfortunately both Mat Latos and Derek Lowe suffered the most from the exchange as both starters were battered around.

With no fireworks on display from Lowe and or Reds manager Dusty Baker, you would think this Latos/Lowe matchup would be free of controversy and a bunch of he said/she said type of banter. Last week it was Lowe and Baker getting into it for past events and now Latos has a bone to pick with the Indians himself. He claims, in a game in which he gave up three home runs and seven earned runs off eight hits, that the Indians were stealing signs. Or there was at least "a little something."

“When you go back and look at video, a couple runners on second base, they put better swings on the ball than they did most of the time without a runner on second base. Choo hit that double (fourth inning), and then (Asdrubal) Cabrera was up. Me and Hanigan changed the signs up and called for a slider. We were going with a certain call, and that certain call that we were going with beforehand was a curveball. And I threw a slider, and he was looking breaking ball and was jammed on a slider. That, to me, shows me a little something."

Last week Latos held the Tribe to two runs off seven hits in seven innings of work. However it was a gem in what has really been a spotty year for the right-hander. Latos has given up 16 home runs this season, matching the most he's given up in an entire season. Of course he's given up 11 home runs at home, moving from one of the best, if not thee best park for a pitcher in San Diego, to a stadium in Cincinnati that will see the ball fly.

Maybe he has an argument, as the three home runs he gave up in Cleveland is one more than he's given up on the road all season.

Or maybe he's just crazy. Because the Indians denied such an act, saying Latos probably shouldn't have been tipping his pitches.

I think it's funny that Latos is calling foul. Perhaps the Indians did their homework and adjusted to Latos from the last time they saw him and went to work. Maybe he just doesn't want to admit that the Indians out-played him. Maybe he truly believes there was something going on.

And even if he did, perhaps he should have done something about it. Like, maybe not make the signs so easy to steal. It's generally an unaccepted thing to steal signs, but all teams do it. If they get caught, they stop and move on. There are plenty of legendary stories of teams stealing signs for weeks until they get caught. It's your own fault if you don't do something about it. So go ahead Latos, complain a little bit more.

What I find awesome? Manny Acta:

"It gives us some advantage. Make sure you write about it so that clubs go crazy when we go to town and they start changing signs and catchers get crossed up and we start advancing runners."

So if the Indians can take advantage that way too. More power to them.