Sports World Reacts to Umpire’s Ear Check of Padres Pitcher Joe Musgrove

Fresh off blowing a 10.5 game lead in the NL East, the Mets were faced with a brutal best-of-three wild-card series against the Padres.

With the series tied at one game a piece, Sunday night’s rubber match would decide who makes it through to the NLDS to play the Dodgers.

In the sixth inning on Sunday night with the Padres leading 4–0, Mets manager Buck Showalter requested that the umpires check San Diego pitcher Joe Musgrove behind the ears for foreign substances.

Ear check. This happened. pic.twitter.com/Qasf2Logt4
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) October 10, 2022

Musgrove was superb in Sunday night’s elimination game, going seven innings while giving up one hit, one walk and no runs while striking out five.

Joe Musgrove is the 1st pitcher in postseason history to go 7+ IP and allow fewer than 2 hits in a winner-take-all game
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) October 10, 2022

It may have been a case of gamesmanship for Showalter, who could have been looking for any edge necessary to crack Musgrove as the Mets stared elimination square in the face.

The reactions across the internet to the incident were a sight to behold. Here are the best reactions seen on social media on Sunday night.

How can you not be romantic about baseball? pic.twitter.com/wncWCOlML6
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) October 10, 2022

Here we go. I guarantee Musgrove has Red Hot on his ears. Pitchers use it as mechanism to stay locked in during games. It burns like crazy and IDK why some guys thinks it helps them but in no way is it “sticky.” Buck is smart tho. Could be trying to just throw him off.
— Andrew McCutchen (@TheCUTCH22) October 10, 2022

The umpires probably spent much of their careers dreaming about working a playoff game. I wonder if they ever imagined that would involve rubbing a pitcher's ears.
— Stephanie Apstein (@stephapstein) October 10, 2022

Seeing a lot of people rip Showalter for having the ump check Musgrove. I got this text from a Major Leaguer about 20 minutes before Showalter called for the check. Can’t blame Buck for doing it. pic.twitter.com/zPIPUH918T
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) October 10, 2022

The Dumb Manager’s Guide On How NOT to Try to Rattle an Opposing Pitcher. pic.twitter.com/Is9Pv5lNXJ
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) October 10, 2022

Buck tainting this win by having Musgrove's (extremely shiny) ears checked has strong "Khan triggering the Genesis device even though the Enterprise won the fight" energy and I love it. https://t.co/JvqGkrhZ6S
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) October 10, 2022

That was purely to try and get under Musgrove’s skin and throw off his rhythm… gamesmanship.
— Will Middlebrooks (@middlebrooks) October 10, 2022

Here are Joe Musgrove’s spin rates on every pitch tonight versus his average spin rate for the season.

You can see by the arrows on the right that the spin rate on all but one pitch is up by at least 100 rpm.

I think this explains why Buck went out there. pic.twitter.com/VxtDA5HPUN
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) October 10, 2022

ur uncle when he’s about to pull a quarter out of ur ear https://t.co/R07IatcyI4
— Jessica Smetana (@jessica_smetana) October 10, 2022

“That is a normal ear. Move on, find a new slant.” -Joe Musgrove, probably pic.twitter.com/l2AxG28uyH
— Bryan Kalbrosky (@BryanKalbrosky) October 10, 2022

More MLB Coverage:

Add us as a preferred source on Google