Major League Baseball came down harshly on New York Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda.
The league suspended Pineda for 10 games on Thursday, one day after he was ejected from a game against the Boston Red Sox when umpires discovered pine tar on the side of his neck.
Pineda’s ejection came in the second inning of an eventual 5-1 Red Sox win.
Red Sox manager John Farrell alerted umpires to the pine tar on Pineda’s neck because it had become “obvious” to those in the Boston dugout, especially after TV cameras spotted a foreign substance on the right-hander’s pitching hand during his last start against Boston on April 10.
The last pitcher to be suspended for employing pine tar on the mound was Tampa Bay Rays reliever Joel Peralta, who received an eight-game ban in 2012.
Pineda is 2-2 with a 1.83 ERA in four starts this season.
