Two announcers have accused pitcher Clay Buchholz of using an illegal substance during the Red Sox win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday night. But a closer look at the evidence is not very convincing.
Shortly after the game, Dirk Hayhurst, a former pitcher and current announcer for Rogers Sportsnet went on Twitter and accused Buccholz of adding a substance to the ball, comparing him to a fictional character that admitted to
"Forget the hair, I just saw video of Buchholz loading the ball with some Eddie Harris worthy slick'em painted up his left forearm. Wow."
Hayhurst later posted this picture to Twitter, which appears to be taken off a television or monitor using his phone...
 Twitter.com/TheGarfoose "Could be rosin, could be something else. Looked awfully fishy, is all." - Dirk Hayhurst |
Jack Morris, another Blue Jays announcer also came right out and accused Buchholz of cheating. When asked what he thought of the images, Morris said "he's throwing a spitter. Cause that's what it is."
It is clear that Buchholz touches his forearm, but those images are hardly proof that he added a foreign substance to the ball.
Going back and reviewing about half of Buchholz's pitches from the game*, we found just a single instance of Buchholz touching his arm in the manner shown above. This was during the first inning, just after Buchholz had walked a batter and was about to face Jose Bautista...
And here it is slowed down...
There does not appear to be anything obvious on the forearm other than glistening sweat. Also notice that immediately after touching his forearm, Buchholz wipes his fingers on his backside, something he does before almost every pitch.
And immediately after touching his forearm, this is what the arm looked like...
 Rogers Sportsnet |
Again, there does not appear to be anything obviously illegal on the forearm.
But what about that particular pitch? It was a cutter and it looked like any other decent cutter...
Finally, here is another view of Buchholz's forearm from the seventh inning. There still does not appear to be any foreign substance...
 Rogers Sportsnet |
The next day, Hayhurst stuck to his story, that "with fingers loaded" Buchholz took hold of the ball.
"I stand by that statement...Furthermore, I don’t feel a damn bit sorry about it."
Maybe Hayhurst and Morris did see something. And maybe Buchholz is cheating. But that is a damning statement to make against somebody based on what is circumstantial evidence at best.
* While reviewing the footage of the game, we tried to stick to the most important situations, such as runners on base or when Buchholz was facing one of the Blue Jays' better hitters.