Joe Musgrove dominated the Mets in a do-or-die playoff game, shutting them down through five innings. His spin rates were up across the board, and his velocity was higher than usual, which drew eyeballs. But what really caught everybody’s attention was his shiny ear. Mets manager Buck Showalter came out in the sixth inning to request a foreign substance check, clearly suspicious something was going on. Musgrove stayed calm while the umpires dug into his glove, hat, hand, and even rubbed his ear like they were checking for earwax-based performance enhancers. Nothing was found. Musgrove smirked his way through it, then struck out and shut down the next batters to finish the inning unfazed.
After the check, Musgrove’s demeanor didn’t change. He threw strikes, got outs, and looked in control. The umpire didn’t find anything sticky, and footage showed Musgrove hadn’t gone to his ear all game until that moment. Some speculated it was Red Hot or Vaseline to stay warm, but nothing illegal helped those spin rates. Even Cardinal Andrew McCutchen hinted some pitchers use Red Hot on their ears for focus. Whatever it was, Musgrove didn’t seem rattled and the Mets didn’t score. The Padres got the last laugh, and Musgrove walked off the mound with shiny ears and a clean stat line.