Astros' Pitcher Ronel Blanco Was Ejected for "Sticky Stuff" and MLB Fans Had Jokes

On Tuesday, the Houston Astros beat the Oakland Athletics, 2-1, in 10 innings at MinuteMaid Park.

Though the game was won in the 10th, the real action happened in the top of the fourth inning when Astros' starter Ronel Blanco was ejected for a "sticky stuff violation."

One of baseball's best stories this year, Blanco threw a no-hitter in his first start of the year and is now finally getting a chance to impact a rotation at the age of 30.

He threw 3.0 scoreless innings on Tuesday and now has a 2.09 ERA through 47.1 innings.

After the game, here's what the umpire had to say about the incident (from @TalkinBaseball_):

"First base umpire Erich Bacchus: It was the stickiest stuff I've felt on a glove since we've been doing this for a few years now."

The umpire that checked Ronel Blanco's glove had some strong words pic.twitter.com/iV7034qFKJ
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 15, 2024

Because of the ejection and violation, Blanco now faces a 10-game suspension, which would be a big loss for an already-decimated Astros' pitching staff. Though it's a big loss for the Astros, baseball fans were not too broken up about seeing the Astros get a little karma.

Per popular Mariners "x" user @MarinerMuse:

Fun fact: a 10-game suspension would be 10 games longer than the suspension any Astros player received for participating in a cheating scheme that won them the 2017 World Series.

Fun fact: a 10-game suspension would be 10 games longer than the suspension any Astros player received for participating in a cheating scheme that won them the 2017 World Series. https://t.co/DMJET5rwvM
— Mariner Muse (@MarinerMuse) May 15, 2024

And per @DodgersNation:

MLB will probably give Ronel Blanco a bigger punishment for this than they gave the Astros for cheating the Dodgers out of a World Series....

MLB will probably give Ronel Blanco a bigger punishment for this than they gave the Astros for cheating the Dodgers out of a World Series.....https://t.co/ZZlTnmqLd2
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) May 15, 2024

Blanco after the game said that he thinks he got rosin on his non-throwing hand, which pitchers are not allowed to do.

Per Kim Davis on social media:

Ronel Blanco says he asked the umpire to check his hands because if there is something sticky in the glove it should be on his hands. They didn’t check his hands. He said he thinks rosin and he didn’t know it’s illegal for it to get on your non-pitching hand

Ronel Blanco says he asked the umpire to check his hands because if there is something sticky in the glove it should be on his hands. They didn’t check his hands. He said he thinks rosin and he didn’t know it’s illegal for it to get on your non-pitching hand. #Astros #ChalkTalk pic.twitter.com/dfb2mAJrEZ
— Kim Davis (@kimydavis) May 15, 2024

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