From sign-stealing to sticky stuff, Yankees work the angles against Blue Jays

The New York Yankees have won both games so far in their contentious road series in Toronto, though starting pitcher Domingo German may have given the Blue Jays at least some vindication that the visitors are playing outside the lines.

Just one night after Aaron Judge's side-eyed glance heard around the baseball world, Yankees starter German was tossed from Tuesday night's game at Rogers Centre as umpires checked his hands before the bottom of the fourth.

"The instant I looked at his hand, it was extremely shiny and extremely sticky," crew chief James Hoye said after the Yankees beat Toronto 6-3 on Tuesday night. "It's the stickiest hand I've ever felt."

German denied Hoye's accusation, saying through a translator it was just a mix of sweat and the mound's rosin bag.

Pitchers have tried to gain an edge on batters as long as there's been baseball. In relatively modern times, Don Sutton, Gaylord Perry and Joe Niekro used saliva, Vaseline and scraps of sandpaper or emery board to gain an edge.

After years of turning a blind eye to pitchers enhancing their grip, Major League Baseball vowed in 2021 to begin cracking down, as grip aids ranging from a tacky mix of rosin and sunscreen to heavy duty concoctions designed for use in strongman competitions became too much to bear.

While there's probably a reasonable debate to be had over whether enforcement has been vigorous enough — German was allowed to wipe rosin off his hands during an April 16 start against Minnesota — he isn't the first to be caught.

Seattle's Hector Santiago and Arizona's Caleb Smith were suspended in 2021 after violations of the foreign substance rules, and New York Mets star Max Scherzer just came back this month from suspension for a similar infraction