Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt explains sticky substance check vs. Reds

New York Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt was told to wash his hands after a sticky substance check on Friday. Here’s what he said about it after the game.

The New York Yankees left Toronto after a drama-filled series against the rival Blue Jays. Whether it was the Blue Jays complaining about Aaron Judge shifting his eyes during an at-bat or that Yankees base coaches were standing in their respective boxes or Domingo German getting caught with a sticky substance on his hand and subsequently suspended for 10 games, there was something new every day.

Now, the Yankees continued their road trip, heading to Cincinnati to take on the Reds.

Ahead of the bottom of the fifth inning, Yankees starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt had his hands and glove checked by umpires for sticky substances, and they found something.

Instead of getting ejected, the umpires allowed Schmidt to wash his hands, where they checked them again and allowed him to pitch. This caught the ire of Reds manager David Bell, who was ejected as a result.

Manager Aaron Boone said that the fur of Schmidt’s black glove left a residue on his left hand due to sweat and rosin. That is why the umpires told Schmidt to wash his hands.

Clarke Schmidt explains sticky substance check vs. Reds

Schmidt spoke to reporters after the game and detailed the sticky substance check. The video comes courtesy of YES Network.

"“When I went out there for the fifth inning, the third base umpire checked me, he checked my hands and he said they were completely fine. But then he checked the back of my wrist where the glove slides onto, and I’m using a black glove, and there’s black fur inside the glove. And throughout the game, I’m sweating, rosin, it kind of built up on the back of my wrist where the fur sits. It raised a question and we went over to the home plate umpire, he checked my hands and there was nothing wrong with my hands, they weren’t sticky at all. He saw the black fur on the back of my wrist and he said go clean it off, and so I went to go clean it off. There seemed to be no concern with the stickiness or anything with my hand, so that’s basically what happened.”"

After the game, home plate umpire, Brian O’Nora told the pool reporter that the residue on Schmidt’s hand wasn’t shiny or dark like pine tar. After telling Schmidt to wash his hands, he said there was nothing left on his hand and concluded that his hand “wasn’t sticky and it wasn’t a foreign substance.” That quote comes courtesy of Newsday’s Erik Boland.

This comes days after German was ejected having a sticky substance on his hand. It was the same umpire, James Hoye, who warned him about the stickiness of his hands in a game earlier in the year against the Minnesota Twins. German did stay in that game, despite washing his hands and emerging with a sticky substance still on his hand, and Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected after arguing.

Hoye said after the Blue Jays game that the substance on German’s hand wasn’t rosin and that after conferring with his crew, determined that it was “shiny, extremely sticky, and it’s the worst hand we’ve ever felt during a game,” (via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch).

Just when you thought the drama was done following the Yankees after finishing their series against the Blue Jays, it only continued in the form of a sticky substance check on Schmidt. However, Schmidt was cleared by the umpiring crew.