BOSTON (AP) - Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell said there was nothing but rosin _ which is perfectly legal _ on Jon Lester’s glove when he beat the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the World Series.
A Cardinals minor leaguer posted a screen shot on Twitter showing a green substance on Lester’s glove. Tyler Melling, a 25-year-old pitcher in the Florida State League, wrote: “Jon Lester using a little Vaseline inside the glove tonight?”
But Farrell said Lester uses rosin, which is provided on the pitcher’s mound, to get a better grip.
“If you know Jon Lester, he sweats like a pig and he needs rosin,” Farrell said before Game 2 on Thursday. “I don’t see this as anything at all.”
Major League Baseball said in a statement Thursday that “we cannot draw any conclusions from this video. There were no complaints from the Cardinals and the umpires never detected anything indicating a foreign substance throughout the game.”
Section 8.02 of the Official Baseball Rules says a pitcher “shall not apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball” and says the penalty for a violation is ejection and an automatic suspension.
“MLB has obviously evaluated it and issued a statement,” Farrell said. “We consider it closed.”
Melling’s tweet was later deleted.
Lester allowed five hits in 7 2-3 scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and a walk as the Red Sox won 8-1.
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