Max Scherzer’s hand became a sticking point for umpires during Wednesday’s game in Los Angeles.
The Mets hurler was ejected after the top of the fourth inning after home plate umpire Dan Bellino found his hand to be “the stickiest it has been since I’ve been inspecting hands.”
And two inning earlier, crew chief Phil Cuzzi had told Scherzer to change his glove due to the stickiness in the pocket.
“When he came out to start the bottom of the fourth inning, that’s when we realized the level of stickiness on his hand was much worse than it was even in the initial inspection that had taken place two innings prior,” Bellino said after the 5-3 Mets win. “So following the proper protocols, Phil immediately recognized it. Phil then asked me to come in to verify that the hand was too sticky. Both Phil and I touched his hand.
“As far as the level of stickiness, this was the stickiest it has been since I’ve been inspecting hands, which goes back three seasons. 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, and whatever was on there remained on our fingers afterwards for a couple of innings where you could still feel that the fingers were sticking together.”
Scherzer could be heard on the SNY broadcast saying it was rosin — the legal powder used by pitchers to help keep their hands dry and somewhat tacky — an assertion he maintained after his ejection.
“I knew I was going to get checked in the fourth,” Scherzer told reporters. “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.”
For Cuzzi, who has been involved in previous glove-related drama, it wasn’t about what the substance on the pitcher’s hand was, something he said he told the ace and manager Buck Showalter.
“I said this to Buck and to Max, it really didn’t matter to us what it is,” Cuzzi said. “All we know [is] that it’s far stickier than anything that we’ve felt, certainly today and anything this year. So in that case, we felt as though he had two chances to clean it up. … He was saying that it’s rosin.”
For Bellino, however, it seemed like there was something other than rosin on Scherzer’s hand.
“We have a universal rosin bag that Major League Baseball provides that we inspect before every game,” he said. “So when we check these pitchers’ hands, we know what the rosin typically feels like on a pitcher’s hand because everyone’s using the same rosin bag. So it’s really important to understand that when they claim it’s just rosin, every pitcher we check, we check every pitcher every single game, and every pitcher we check, we’re accustomed to what that rosin residue will be on a pitcher’s hand.
“The fact that this went so much further was indicative that there was something likely more than just rosin, something that was so sticky that, whatever it was, it was all over the palm, it was up on the inside of the fingers, the entire hand was stickier than anything that we had inspected before, and most importantly, it was worse than it was in that second inning when he was told that he had to wash his hand.”
The umpires said they were aware of what an ejection for a sticky substance would mean for Scherzer, who now faces a possible 10-game suspension.
“I would just say, the most important aspect is, we were not quick to remove him from the game, understanding that removal from the game is a very big penalty, a very stiff penalty,” Bellino said. “The fact that he was given many opportunities and he was told that it was getting too far and that it continued to be an ongoing situation, the level of stickiness, it was just too much.”
