Max Scherzer facing potential suspension after sticky situation in Mets' win over Dodgers
Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer, left, is ejected from the game as he and manager Buck Showalter dispute a call from umpire Phil Cuzzi, center, and umpire Dan Bellino, right, after they found a problem with Scherzer's glove during the fourth inning of a baseball game in Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Credit: AP/Ashley Landis
LOS ANGELES — Max Scherzer is facing an automatic 10-game suspension following his ejection Wednesday for what umpires deemed an illegal sticky substance on his hand — but what the Mets' ace insisted was “sweat and rosin” — during his start against the Dodgers.
The tense sequence climaxed prior to the bottom of the fourth inning of the Mets’ eventual 5-3 win, their fifth victory in six games in California over the past week. First-base umpire Phil Cuzzi and plate umpire/crew chief Dan Bellino stopped Scherzer on his way to the mound for a third conversation about his right hand and glove, which they decided were too sticky despite previous warnings.
An angry, animated Scherzer pleaded his case but was kicked out of the game anyway.
Scherzer will be allowed to appeal a suspension from MLB, which has enforced a standard of a 10-game ban following foreign-substance ejections over the past two years.
“I knew I was going to get checked in the fourth,” Scherzer said. “So I would have to be absolute idiot to try to do anything when I’m coming back out for the fourth.”
Bellino said to a pool reporter: “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 . . . This was the stickiest that it has been since I've been inspecting hands, which now goes back three seasons. Compared to the first inning, 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 innings, where you could still feel that the fingers were sticking together. So it was far more than we had ever seen before on a pitcher in live action.”
Scherzer and Cuzzi agreed on where the problem started: After the second inning, when Cuzzi conducted a routine check of Scherzer’s hand and glove. What he found was, as Scherzer described it, “a little clumpy” combination of sweat and rosin. Cuzzi called it slightly sticky and dark coloring, which didn’t surprise him. Scherzer volunteered that he would wash it off, according to Cuzzi, who told him “there better not be anything there” when he got checked again.
That was when Scherzer said he washed his hand — with alcohol, which he noted sometimes becomes sticky when combined with rosin — the first time, with an MLB official watching from about 10 feet away.
Upon returning for the bottom of the third, Cuzzi looked again and noticed that the pocket of Scherzer’s glove was sticky. He asked Scherzer to get a different one, which he did. He returned, warmed up and retired the side in order on eight pitches.
“Phil [Cuzzi] then came to me and said, I'm going to check him again when he comes out to start the next half inning, because this was an ongoing situation that we needed to monitor,” Bellino said.
Cuzzi did so and ejected Scherzer after an initial discussion.
“I said 'I swear on my kids’ life, I’m not using anything else,'” Scherzer 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. They say it’s too sticky. They threw me out because of that.”
Bellino and Cuzzi didn’t claim to know what he was using, just that whatever it was was too sticky.
“We know what the rosin typically feels like on a pitcher's hand, because everyone's using the same rosin bag,” Bellino said. “So it's really important to understand that when they claim it's just rosin, every pitcher we check — because we check every pitcher every single game — 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.”
Since MLB began cracking down on pitchers using sticky substances in June 2021, an effort it heightened coming into this season, only three pitchers have been ejected. Scherzer joined Seattle’s Hector Santiago (June 2021) and Arizona’s Caleb Smith (August 2021).
Cuzzi was the umpire in all three cases.
“Phil’s certainly been a guy that’s been known for that,” manager Buck Showalter said.
Santiago and Smith served 10-game suspensions.
“We’ll see what comes out of this,” Showalter said. “We feel pretty confident with where we were with it.”
Scherzer said, regarding an appeal of a suspension: “Now it’s becoming a legal matter. I don’t want to comment on what happens next if I get suspended or not. We’ll see what happens.”
Scherzer tossed three scoreless innings and said his back felt fine. Back soreness caused the Mets to delay his start by three days.
Brandon Nimmo went 5-for-5 with a go-ahead two-run home run off Noah Syndergaard.
Five Mets relievers combined to allow three runs in six innings. Jimmy Yacabonis, who entered in the bottom of the fourth upon Scherzer’s sudden dismissal, tossed 49 pitches across 2 2/3 innings.
“He’s going to get a steak dinner for that,” Scherzer said. “Everybody did our job today and we beat a good team and we took the series away from a good team. That had us all fired up.”
Rule 3.01 states: “No player shall intentionally discolor or damage the ball by rubbing it with soil, rosin, paraffin, licorice, sand-paper, emery-paper or other foreign substance.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
