Oct 9, 2022; New York City, New York, USA; Umpire Alfonso Marquez (72) and crew check for illegal substances on San Diego Padres starting pitcher Joe Musgrove (44) during the sixth inning in game three of the Wild Card series for the 2022 MLB Playoffs at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

New York Mets manager Buck Showalter made the bold decision to have the umpires check San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove for foreign substances during the sixth inning of their 6-0 loss in Game 3 of the Wild Card.

Musgrove was mowing down Mets hitters and was observed and pointed out by many Mets fans on Twitter that Musgrove’s ears were particularly shiny. The belief was there that Musgrove might’ve been using a substance to manipulate the baseball.

Of course Showalter nor anyone in the dugout was scrolling Twitter during the game but maybe active tweeter and team owner Steve Cohen somehow relayed a message down to the dugout.

The statcast data showed that Musgrove’s spin rates were up. Across the board the RPM on his pitches increased from 47 to 247 on his yearly averages.

The umpires performed the check and ultimately found nothing on Musgrove.

The Athletic’s Eno Sarris labeled the spin rate increase as a direct correlation to Musgrove’s velocity being up. Sarris has performed a multitude of studies on spin rate increases and decreases when the substance crackdown happened.

Even if the Mets didn’t think Musgrove was cheating, it’s possible it was used as a way to get into the pitcher’s head. If it was, it had an adverse effect.

“It almost just lit a fire under me,” Musgrove said.

“That was his last attempt to push me out of the game. You’d better be very confident that no one on your side is using anything if you’re going to call out someone on our side,” he added.

Showalter explained the decision.

“I’m charged with doing what’s best for the New York Mets,” Showalter said. “However it might make me look, I’m going to do that every time and live with the consequences.”

Musgrove pitched seven innings, allowed one hit and walked one while striking out five batters. Those were the Mets only two baserunners throughout the game. Simply, New York couldn’t touch him.