Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected during his team's 6-1 loss to the Yankees on Saturday after a flare-up over what turned out to be a rosin controversy involving New York starting pitcher Domingo Germán.
Baldelli's 12th career ejection happened after a lengthy check and discussion regarding Germán and his possible use of a grip-enhancing substance. German was checked coming off the mound after his third inning of work by crew chief James Hoye, and the check appeared to be more involved than the usual inspection. The Twins' television broadcast undertook some replay lip-reading of Hoye's talk with German, and play-by-play man Dick Bremer posited that Hoye said something along the lines of, "I told you to wipe it off."
When Germán returned for the top of the fourth, the umpires appeared to revisit the matter with Germán and an increasingly heated Aaron Boone:
Germán was allowed to take the mound and continue pitching, which suggests that umpires did not discover clear evidence of illegal "sticky stuff," and that led to Baldelli's argument and ejection:
In all, the start of the half-inning was delayed by roughly five-and-a-half minutes while all this played out.
MLB prior to the start of this season announced ramped-up checks for the use of foreign substances by pitchers. Such substances have long been used by pitchers, but increased use of them and the development of more effective grip-enhancers have allowed pitchers to artificially increase spin rates and by the extension the quality of their stuff. On that point, it's worth noting that Germán through those early innings on Saturday did not show any notable increase in his spin rates.
After the game, Boone said it was a rosin issue as opposed to something involving a banned substance like spider-tack:
As for Baldelli, he confirmed that the issue was with Germán's use of rosin and clarified his argument:
The use of rosin is permissible by pitchers with the following qualifiers (via MLB.com):
"Pitchers will continue to be permitted to use a rosin bag on their hand, wrist and forearm to assist in managing sweat, but they are prohibited from applying it to their gloves and uniforms, nor are they allowed to combine rosin with any other substance, such as sunscreen."
Germán entered Saturday's contest with a 5.87 ERA through his first two starts of the season. Against the Twins, however, he was perfect through five innings and wound up allowing one run on three hits through 6 1/3 innings with a career-high 11 strikeouts and no walks.
