What in tar-nation?

(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Sunday’s Game 2 was nothing we hadn’t seen all season: The Cardinals once again were stymied by a junk-balling lefthander. Yawn.

That same junk-balling lefty did inject a bit of intrigue early, though, as Fox cameras picked up some sort of brownish goo on the meat of Kenny Rogers’ left thumb.

Tim McCarver then leapt into action, breathlessly describing to viewers the thumb and what that goo could be, eventually hypothesizing that it was pine tar.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland thought that the Cardinals hitters mentioned something to Tony La Russa during the first inning:

I know Tony said, “Hey, I don’t want to make any issue here, but a couple of my players are saying that the ball is acting a little funny.” And obviously they were a little suspicious.

Indeed. La Russa conferred with the umpires after the top of the first, and Fox cameras showed Rogers in the dugout being talked to by various Tigers. When he returned to the mound for the top of the second, his left hand was mysteriously clean.

There’s no mistaking that Rogers was dominant in his eight innings Sunday, as he has been the entire postseason. But was he cheating? Well…

Let’s just say that it would be profoundly stupid to pull something like that on baseball’s biggest stage. Rule 8.02(a)(4) makes it pretty clear:

The pitcher shall not apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball.

The penalty for such an act follows:

The pitcher shall be ejected immediately from the game and shall be suspended automatically for 10 games.

Like I said… it would be profoundly stupid for Kenny Rogers of the Detroit Tigers to apply a foreign substance to the ball during Game 2 of the 2006 World Series.

I’m glad I’m not the suspicious sort.