NEW YORK — New York Mets pitcher Drew Smith was suspended for 10 video games by Major League Baseball on Wednesday, the fifth pitcher and second on his staff penalized for utilizing banned sticky stuff.
The penalty was introduced by MLB senior vice chairman for on-field operations Michael Hill, someday after Smith entered within the seventh inning of a Subway Series recreation in opposition to the Yankees at Citi Field and was ejected with out throwing a pitch.
Smith declined to attraction the self-discipline to John McHale Jr., a particular assistant to baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, and began serving the penalty Wednesday evening.
“They said both of my hands were too sticky,” Smith mentioned following the Mets’ 7-6 loss. “Really surprised, because I haven’t done anything different all year. Sweat and rosin. I don’t know what else to say. Nothing changed. It’s just, I think the process is so arbitrary. It can change from one crew to the other and I think that’s the main issue.”
Smith was stopped for a routine test as he reached the infield. Within moments, a number of umpires and teammates had been huddled across the right-hander, and Mets supervisor Buck Showalter got here out of the dugout to hitch the dialogue.
Smith held out his pitching hand and pleaded his case, however he was ejected by first base umpire Bill Miller, the crew chief. New York shall be a participant brief throughout the suspension.
“Drew Smith was ejected because he had sticky hands,” Miller instructed a pool reporter. “I don’t know what’s on his hand, all I know it was sticky – sticky to the touch. It stuck to my hands when I touched it. Not only his pitching hand, but his glove hand as well.”
Miller mentioned Smith’s hand was the stickiest he’s felt this season, and that the opposite three umpires agreed.
“I think if something’s sticky, it’s illegal,” Miller mentioned. “They cannot manipulate the rosin. They can’t use 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.”
Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, who began Tuesday evening, served a 10-game suspension after being ejected April 19 at Dodger Stadium. Scherzer claimed it was merely a mixture of sweat and rosin, nothing unlawful.
“I look in the mirror and go, `OK, are we doing something wrong that we need to fix?’” Showalter mentioned Wednesday. “That’s my first thing you got to look at. It’s like instead of it always being somebody else’s fault, somebody singling you out or picking you out. Are you doing something wrong?”
New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán was ejected from a May 16 recreation in Toronto for utilizing a overseas substance on the mound and suspended 10 video games by Major League Baseball the next day.
After MLB started cracking down on overseas substances in June 2021, Seattle’s Hector Santiago and Arizona’s Caleb Smith served suspensions for unlawful sticky substances.
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