The defining moments of the MLB season so far came Tuesday, when Max Scherzer glared at Joe Girardi and Sergio Romo dropped his pants.
MLB action, it's fantastic?
Not really, but that's the mess baseball created first by letting pitchers cheat with increasing frequency and with more and more exotic substances, and then ushering in a sweeping crackdown on such things in the middle of this season.
Scherzer, one of this generation's best pitchers, was checked three times for illegal substances in his start Tuesday for the Nationals. After the third time, he glared into the Phillies dugout at manager Joe Girardi, who came charging out and was ejected.
I talked about the drama on Wednesday's Daily Delivery podcast, noting that maybe for one day it's exciting but over the course of a season will only serve to do damage to a sport already filled with delays and distrust.
At issue for Girardi was how Scherzer kept taking off his cap.
"I've seen Max a long time, since 2010," Girardi said after the game. "Obviously, he's going to be a Hall of Famer. I've never seen him wipe his head like he was doing tonight, ever. It was suspicious for me. He did it four or five times. It was suspicious. I didn't mean to offend anyone. I just got to do what's right for my club."
Scherzer maintained that he was just using sweat to get a grip on the ball after hitting a batter. That's all umpires found on him as well, but that didn't stop the hard feelings.