Hector Santiago is already infamous as the first player to be ejected and suspended under MLB’s foreign substance crackdown. He returned to the mound Friday for the first time since that ejection, and that didn’t go smoothly either.
Santiago is allowed to play while appealing his ten-game suspension. He pitched a successful eighth inning for the Seattle Mariners Friday, striking out the side while allowing one hit. He didn’t come back out for the ninth, but if he had, he would have had to borrow a teammate’s glove as the umpires deemed the one he was using to be too light.
Apparently, umpires complained that Santiago's glove wasn't black enough. They considered it gray and they told him he couldn't use it any further. Santiago told the umpires that they took his other glove.
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 3, 2021
So if the game would've remained tied and he would've continued to pitch, he would've had to borrow a glove from a teammate.
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 3, 2021
Santiago can’t really win here. Pitchers only carry so many gloves, after all, and his primary one was shipped off to MLB for analysis after his ejection. Santiago, for what it’s worth, has maintained he used nothing illegal.
At this point, Santiago might want to start carrying an extra glove around just to be safe.
