To address the issue with pitchers using sticky substances to get better grip on their pitches, Major League Baseball decided to implement random umpire checks for a regulator. Most thought it was a matter of time before controversy came from the rule change, and that time arrived when New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer was ejected during their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday afternoon.
During one of those checks in the middle of the fourth inning, crew chief Phil Cuzzi and home plate umpire Dan Bellino listened to Scherzer argue his case before making the decision to throw him out of the game.
Per Mets beat writer Tim Healey, Cuzzi described what he and Bellino discovered that forced their choice to run Max Scherzer.
“Phil Cuzzi on Max Scherzer's glove/hand: ‘It was far stickier than anything that we felt certainly today and anything this year. And so in that case, we felt as though he had two chances to clean it up and he didn't',” Healey said via Twitter.
For the record, Scherzer denied any wrongdoing, saying he wasn't cheating at all.
“I said, ‘I swear on my kids' life, I'm not using anything else,'” he said. “‘This is sweat and rosin. Sweat and rosin.' I keep saying it over and over, and they touch my hand and say it's sticky. Yes it is, because it's sweat and rosin.”
The two times Cuzzi mentioned for Scherzer to clean up the sticky stuff were the second and third innings, and in this case, the fourth inning check was the third strike. Now comes the fallout, and if what Scherzer said turns out to be true, there may be more adjustments to the random checks coming from MLB.
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