Joe Girardi Ejected After Getting Into It With Max Scherzer Over “Sticky Substance” Checks

Joe Girardi has been ejected from the Phillies-Nationals game after getting into it with Nats ace Max Scherzer following repeated requests to have the ace checked for sticky substances.

On Tuesday, it was Scherzer’s first start since the MLB changed its rules to have umps check pitchers for substances throughout the games. And Scherzer was very clearly not about it.

Washington Nationals Ace Max Scherzer Looks Like He Wants To Kill The Umpire Who Had To Check Him For Sticky Substanceshttps://t.co/lPV4FAhk7m

— SideAction (@SideActionHQ) June 23, 2021

After Joe Girardi asked for Max Scherzer to be checked a third time, Max had enough.

MAX SCHERZER HAS HAD IT WITH THE FOREIGN SUBSTANCE CHECKS https://t.co/87dCMhjr9A

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) June 23, 2021

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When Max Scherzer came off the mound, he had some words with Joe Girardi, which resulted in the Phillies manager being ejected from the game.

Max Scherzer stares down Joe Girardi, Joe comes out of the dugout and challenges him then gets ejected, Max shows off his glove and hat pic.twitter.com/cjwNfLBHuO

— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) June 23, 2021

This is obviously just turning into a clown show with the MLB taking the whole ‘checks’ thing way too far. Joe Girardi is an old-school kind of guy, so it’ll be interesting to hear his side of the story.

But this is already taking away from the game itself, and it hasn’t even been a full week of the routine checks yet.

Max Scherzer is just one of many pitchers who have come out against the new substance rules, and it really doesn’t seem like hitters care all that much if pitchers use a little something to get better grip on a ball.

Needless to say, Rob Manfred and the MLB need to figure out a more efficient way to police this if they’re going to continue to do so. This is simply not working.

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