Red Sox pitchers may not like that MLB is now cracking down on foreign substances, but team president Sam Kennedy says they were warned.
In his weekly interview Thursday with The Greg Hill Show, Kennedy said MLB told players in Spring Training they were going to start checking pitchers more frequently for sticky stuff. The edict went into place Monday, already leading to several confrontations with players.
Most notably, Max Scherzer got into a tizzy when Phillies manager Joe Girardi continually checked him, and reliever Sergio Romo dropped his pants. Oh, and Garrett Richards also has a 9.82 ERA over his last three starts.
“I think the commissioner’s office made that very clear back in Spring Training,” Kennedy said. “They essentially put the industry on notice. They talked to players, to hitters, to pitchers, current players, former players, and now they’re enforcing the rules that need to be enforced.”
If pitchers did receive prior warning about the new mandate, they aren’t acting like it. Following another stinker Wednesday, Richards complained he has to change his whole style of pitching.
“It’s changed pretty much everything for me. It’s changed a lot for me,” he told reporters after surrendering five runs over 1 2/3 inning against the Rays. “I feel like I need to be a different pitcher than I’ve been the last nine and a half years.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has come under criticism for the sudden enforcement, and unnecessarily creating a witch hunt-like environment. It’s also worth noting MLB deadened the balls this year to cut down on home runs.
But still, pitchers stretched the boundaries too far. Kennedy applauded MLB for taking action.
“As an industry, it’s been widely documented there are issues across the game, and kudos to baseball for cleaning it up,” he said. "It’s a rule that I think has been on the books since 1920. Everyone acknowledges we need to play by the rules. It’s clearly an adjustment for some pitchers.”
And those pitchers appear to be on the Red Sox. Over the last week, Red Sox starters have gone 1-3 with a 6.31 ERA.
Kennedy, however, says he’s confident they’ll turn it around.
“We’re going through that adjustment period,” he said. "I have every confidence Garrett Richards will figure it out. He and Dave Bush have made some adjustments over the course of the season already, and he’s a huge part of this team and what we’re trying to do here in the American League East.”
