The sticky substances used by pitchers vary. According to The Athletic, pitchers have been known to use pine tar, vaseline and hair gel to better grip baseballs. There are also several proprietary ...

And foreign substances are a clear and present issue in the game, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt asserted, bluntly, when asked Thursday afternoon. “Yeah, it’s a problem,” he said.

It apparently is a common practice for catchers to use such substances to help them grip the ball better. That raises an interesting gap in baseball’s rules.

Brewers relief pitcher Will Smith was suspended for eight games by Major League Baseball for having a foreign substance on his arm. He will appeal.

Kai-Wei Teng was ejected after two innings for using a foreign substance, so the Emeralds went with an unexpected bullpen game. Both Emeralds runs came on solo home runs.

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