Even if you're a diehard Phillies fan, I wouldn't blame you for turning their Monday night game against the Reds off before it ended. The hope is that you would have watched through the first five or six frames, when the Phils led early due to Alec Bohm and Ronald Torreyes' run production and rookie Bailey Falter's fine outing on the mound in relief. Even after Neftali Feliz gave up a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh, the Phils were still well within striking distance.
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But after Enyel De Los Santos allowed a run to score on a throwing error, then a single, then a double, then a wild pitch, and then a homer... yeah. You can turn it off at that point. However, it doesn't mean that the entertainment ended there. Second baseman Nick Maton came into the game to finish off the eighth inning, and while a position player pitching always has the potential to be a fun watch, it becomes even more of a humorous display now that the MLB crackdown on foreign substances has been enforced.
And yes, that rule apparently applies to position players, going up against pinch-hit pitcher Tony Santillan in an eight-run ballgame.
You know how at sporting events or amusement parks — or really any non-airport event with a metal detector — little kids aren't subject to the same check-in procedures as adults? Maybe that should be how the foreign substance checks go with position players pitching, too, seeing as I highly doubt Maton coated his fingers in whatever-tack to make sure he got that crucial final out against Santillan. But, hey, that's the way we do things here in 2021, like it or not. We'll see how long it lasts in its current form.
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