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LOS ANGELES — Max Scherzer insisted it was just rosin and sweat, but the umpires had other ideas.
The Mets co-ace was ejected before the bottom of the fourth inning Wednesday at Dodger Stadium under MLB’s rules for applying foreign substances to the baseball and now faces a possible 10-game suspension.
Scherzer was ejected by crew chief Phil Cuzzi, who an inning earlier had inspected the veteran right-hander’s glove and ordered him to change it.
A displeased Scherzer returned to the mound with a new glove and pitched a perfect inning to keep the game scoreless.
But as Scherzer walked to the mound for the bottom of the fourth inning, he was stopped by Cuzzi and plate umpire Dan Bellino, who examined his hand for sticky substances.
Scherzer repeatedly stated his case that it was just rosin, but he was ejected.
Scherzer said his hand was “clumpy” from the rosin and sweat and he was told after the second inning to wash it off.
He said he washed it with alcohol and rosin, but Cuzzi still wasn’t satisfied, prompting the glove switch before Scherzer pitched the third.
“I knew I was going to get checked in the fourth,” Scherzer, who was returning from back discomfort that had delayed his start by three days, said after the Mets’ 5-3 victory over the Dodgers. “So I have to be an absolute idiot to try to do anything when I am coming back out for the fourth. I am in front of the MLB official that is underneath [near the dugout]. I wash my hand with alcohol in front of the official. I then apply rosin and I then grabbed sweat. I then go back out there and Phil Cuzzi says my hand is too sticky.”
Scherzer said he swore to Cuzzi he wasn’t using anything other than sweat and rosin in his attempt to get a better grip on the baseball.
Cuzzi summoned Bellino to verify his opinion that Scherzer’s hand was too sticky to comply with the rules.
“As far as stickiness, this was the stickiest that it has been since I have been inspecting hands, which goes back three seasons,” Bellino said through a pool reporter. “Compared to the first inning, the level of stickiness, it was so sticky that when we touched his hand, our fingers were sticking to his hand. Whatever was on there remained on our fingers for a few innings afterwards [so] that you could still feel the fingers were sticking together.
“It was far more than we have ever seen before on a pitcher in live action and we understand the repercussions of removing a pitcher from the game, we take that very seriously and with the training we have been given by Major League Baseball to check … this is clearly something that went too far, it went over the line.”
If Scherzer is suspended, it would further weaken a Mets rotation that already has three starting pitchers on the injured list.
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Last offseason, MLB’s on-field committee approved enhanced enforcement of the rules prohibiting the use of foreign substances by pitchers during this season. Accordingly, umpires have been instructed to increase the frequency and scope of foreign substance checks this season. Pitchers are subject to inspection before and after innings and managers may make such requests of a pitcher or position player before an at-bat.
In 2021, pitchers Caleb Smith and Hector Santiago were suspended for using foreign substances. Cuzzi was involved in both of those ejections.
“Now it’s becoming a legal matter and I don’t want to comment on what happens next if I get suspended and all that,” Scherzer said.
Mets manager Buck Showalter didn’t want to discuss the possible ramifications of losing Scherzer for two starts.
“We’ll see what comes out of this,” Showalter said. “We feel pretty confident in where we were with it.”
Scherzer’s agent, Scott Boras, indicated that scientific methods should be required to eject a pitcher for foreign substances.
“If you want to attack the integrity of the competition you need clear, precise standards or else you damage the game and its players,” Boras said. “The Cuzzi on-field spectrometer is not the answer.”
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