Jacob deGrom was stopped coming off the mound after retiring the side in order in the first inning, and chuckled as he handed his glove and cap over to the umpire. The New York Mets ace then undid his belt buckle as requested, showing there was no goop there either.
This was no sticky situation for the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, only what is going to become a new norm for all professional pitchers.
The search is on for unauthorized foreign substances that pitchers can use to doctor baseballs — long against the rules, but rarely enforced until now.
Photo: Rick Scuteri, USA TODAY
The crackdown began on Monday when major and minor league umpires started regular checks of all pitchers for tacky substances used to get a better grip on the balls, but can also increase the spin of the balls and make hitting them more difficult.
“I said: ‘What all do you guys need?’ ‘Glove, hat and belt,’ they said. I handed them that stuff and then went along my way,” said DeGrom, the first to get inspected since he was the first pitcher to take the mound on the day that baseball’s new enforcement directive went into effect.
He started the first game of New York’s home doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves.
The Mets and Braves were among 14 MLB teams who played on Monday, six days after a five-page memo to teams about the pending change in enforcement that followed what baseball commissioner Rob Manfred called an extensive process of repeated warnings without effect.
Manfred last week said that the enforcement of foreign substances was needed “to level the playing field” after two months of comprehensive data collection, including inspections of balls used in games and testing by third-party inspectors.
That came with the league batting average at a more than a half-century low, along with record strikeouts.
Fans at Citi Field booed loudly when plate umpire Ben May halted DeGrom on the pitcher’s path off the field after the right-hander had two strikeouts in the first inning. After being cleared by crew chief Ron Kulpa, who had jogged in from third base to do the inspection, DeGrom walked on to the dugout, laughing with catcher Tomas Nido about the exchange as the fans cheered.
Kyle Muller, who was making his first big league start for the Braves, was similarly stopped and inspected after the bottom of the first.
DeGrom appeared to ask May after the top of the second if he would need to be inspected again, but May waved him on that time. He was inspected again after the fifth, prompting more boos from the fans while their hometown pitcher was cleared again.
“Honestly, I didn’t mind it. It was quick and it went pretty easy,” DeGrom said.
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