The Mets, losers of nine of 10, managed to lose more than a game Tuesday.
The Mets’ predicament has gotten stickier after Drew Smith was ejected when trying to enter a game the Mets lost at Citi Field, 7-6.
Smith jogged in from the bullpen for the top of the seventh inning with the Mets trailing the Yankees by a run. He presented his hands to crew chief Bill Miller.
According to Miller, Smith had the stickiest hands — plural, gloved hand, too — he has touched this season.
“And the crew as well,” Miller told a pool reporter. “I had all three of my members touch the hands, and they felt the same way.”
Amid a huddle of Mets players, manager Buck Showalter and the four umpires, Smith became the second Mets pitcher tossed for hands that were deemed too sticky this season.
According to Smith, he asked several Mets to touch his hands as he was leaving the field, none finding them sticky. He encountered an MLB official in the tunnel leading out of the dugout.
“I kind of forced him to feel my hands as I walked in,” Smith said. “He actually laughed and said there was nothing there.”
Smith said he would consult with the MLB Players Association before deciding whether to appeal the suspension.
An ejection for a foreign substance carries an automatic, 10-game suspension in which the player’s roster spot cannot be filled.
“I haven’t done anything different all year,” said Smith, who was replaced by John Curtiss. “It was sweat and rosin. I don’t know what else to say. Nothing changed.
“I think the process is so arbitrary. It can change from one crew to another.”
Max Scherzer, who was suspended 10 games in April for failing a sticky-substance check, also had maintained that his hands were sticky only because of sweat and rosin.
An excess of rosin, though, is not allowed. There is no firm definition of “excess,” which is at the heart of player anger.
“I think we’re all angry about this one. You feel [Smith’s] hand, you don’t feel anything,” Scherzer said after allowing six runs in 3 ¹/₃ innings. “There’s got to be a spin rate component to getting an ejection.”
Smith did not throw a pitch, so his spin rates were not taken into account.
“I threw a fastball up and in and hit [Giancarlo] Stanton in the elbow,” Scherzer said. “Thank God I had enough grip. If I had less grip and you keep cracking down on me … the ball’s at his head. This is a dangerous issue.”
Miller said Smith’s hands were “distinctly” different and more sticky than any he has touched.
Asked if the process is arbitrary, Miller responded: “I think if something’s sticky, it’s illegal. [Pitchers] cannot manipulate the rosin. They can’t use [a] foreign substance.
“I don’t know what was on his hand. But his hand was sticky to the touch, where my hand stuck to his hand.”
