After the Mets let go Carlos Beltran, making him the third manager this week to become a casualty of the scandal, tweets from an account with the handle @S0_blessed1 began to pick up traction. Purporting to be Beltran’s niece, @S0_blessed1 dropped a couple of bombshells implicating specific Astros players, something Major League Baseball had not done in the course of its investigation, and drawing vehement denials from the accused.

From there—as it usually does—the internet went to work.

The home run referenced in the second tweet was a walk-off homer in Game 6 of last year’s American League Championship Series against the Yankees. The Astros second baseman José Altuve launched a hanging slider from Yankees pitcher Aroldis Chapman over the Minute Maid Park wall in Houston, propelling his team to the World Series.

Recently, it has become something of a tradition for a player who hits a walk-off to have his jersey torn off in raucous celebration. This home run being of the magnitude that it was, you could expect exactly that to happen.

Except it didn’t.

As the internet sleuths unsurfaced, here’s Altuve on his way to home plate, his teammates waiting with open arms. But the former American League MVP is clearly adamant that they don’t rip off this jersey.

Immediately afterward, with the rest of his team on the field celebrating, Altuve mysteriously heads to the clubhouse.

Altuve eventually re-emerged without his jersey, and Fox’s Ken Rosenthal even asked in a postgame on-field interview why he wanted his shirt kept on.

“I’m too shy,” Altuve said, before noting that the last time his teammates ripped off his jersey in celebration, “I got in trouble with my wife.”

And that was that. Nothing nefarious at play here. But now we have someone purporting to be an aggrieved member of the Beltran family giving an entirely different perspective on why Altuve was so insistent that shirt stay on, as well as video that claims to lend credence to the allegation.

Enter @Jomboy_.

@Jomboy_’s account became popular during the 2019 season, often taking highlights from that night’s action and adding humorous commentary to it, giving baseball fans on Twitter a lighter look at the sport. But he became even more prominent in November after The Athletic’s report alleging that the Astros had been stealing signs in 2017 using the help of video equipment and a garbage can in the dugout, which would be banged to indicate that an off-speed pitch was on the way.

@Jomboy_ isolated audio tracks from multiple at-bats in the 2017 postseason that seemed to include the sound of something being banged right before an off-speed pitch was delivered. When fastballs were called for, no banging can be heard on the tracks.

He may not have the media background of Rosenthal—who, along with Evan Drellich—wrote The Athletic story, but he added fuel to the controversy. Because of that, he appears to have made some connections within the game. As @S0_blessed1’s tweets began blowing up on Thursday, @Jomboy_ followed up with comments in support of the rumors.

Then Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer, about as active a Twitter user as any player in the game, confirmed @Jomboy_’s confirmation.

Remember, all of this started with accusations levied by someone claiming to be Beltran’s niece. But now it seems it wasn’t Beltran’s niece at all.

ESPN’s Marly Rivera spoke with the Beltrans, who assured the reporter that whoever was behind @S0_Blessed1’s account wasn’t a member of the family.

Whatever @S0_blessed1’s real identity, he still had some pretty damning accusations against the Astros. And both @Jomboy_ and Bauer appeared to back up the claims.

Just as soon as @S0_blessed1 was everywhere on Twitter, the account was deleted. Who was behind it might be a mystery that’s never solved, but it certainly left a trail of breadcrumbs.

Meanwhile, Altuve’s representative, Scott Boras, has been repeatedly denying the allegations that his client wore buzzers beneath his jersey to steal signs.

As The Athletic’s Marc Carig summed up late Thursday night:

But this story isn’t going away. We’ll see what the next days bring.