Orioles' Brian Matusz ejected in 12th inning after foreign substance found on right arm

Baltimore Orioles reliever Brian Matusz didn't have much to say after he became the second pitcher this week to be tossed after a foreign substance was discovered on his arm.

"We're not going to address the issue right now," Matusz said after the 1-0, extra-inning loss. "Obviously, I have my own personal opinions about the issue, but right now with emotions running high we're going to let this settle and address questions at a later time.

"The decision was made and that was it."

In Saturday's game, Miami Marlins manager Dan Jennings requested umpires check out Matusz after it appeared he was going to his right forearm for something.

Jennings said he noticed the righty touching his right arm in between pitches, enough to the point where he and his staff felt it was necessary to alert the home plate umpire.

"We saw a substance. We saw something shining on his arm. So we watched him a couple of pitches to see how many times he went to it," Jennings said. "... This was a situation that we saw. The game is tough enough to play. We didn't want to create an unfair advantage to our hitters, so that's why I went out and asked them to check it."

When crew chief Paul Emmel looked at the substance, he abruptly tossed Matusz in the 12th inning, paving the way for T.J. McFarland, who ultimately gave up the walk off to Martin Prado an inning later.

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

The request from Jennings, though, didn't come immediately. Instead, it came after the righty struck out Justin Bour and forced J.T. Realmuto to ground out.

"The protocol is that the manager has to come out and make us aware of something like that and ask us if we want to go check the opposing pitcher and he did," Emmel said.

"And so I went out there and told the pitcher I was going to touch his right forearm because that's where he was touching before he went to the ball and yes I detected a foreign substance so the pitcher was ejected and we went from there."

A day earlier, MLB suspended Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Will Smith eight games for climbing on the mound with a foreign substance on his arm.

Smith later acknowledged he uses a mixture of rosin and sunscreen to maintain a grip on the ball.

With that, it's expected the league will hand down a similar suspension to the Orioles hurler.