Schmidt's substance check prompts worry, then relief for Yanks

CINCINNATI -- When the umpires were gathered around Clarke Schmidt inspecting his hand, glove and wrist, troubling thoughts were going through the minds of the Yankees in the field and the dugout.

"You don't want to know what I was thinking," said manager Aaron Boone.

"You're just hoping it's nothing serious," said catcher Kyle Higashioka.

The Yankees, of course, were three days removed from Domingo Germán's ejection and a 10-day suspension for having a sticky substance on his palm during a game in Toronto.

On Friday night against the Reds, Schmidt was allowed to continue -- after washing his wrist -- and the Yankees went on to a 6-2 victory in the series opener at Great American Ball Park.

"They checked his hands, and he was fine," Boone said. "He has a black glove, so when they checked there was black [on his wrist]. Basically, the black fur of the glove with resin and sweat, the color got to his wrist, so they wanted him to wash his wrist."

The Yankees can't afford to lose another starter, thus the concern when Schmidt was being checked.

"We've got to avoid that at all costs," Boone said. "We're holding each other to account at all times."

Schmidt was worried.

"Obviously, I get it," Schmidt said. "The league is hyper-sensitive about it. You see across the league where guys are getting more extensive on the searches. I've got nothing to hide.

"[But] you don't want to get thrown out of the game when something like that happens, especially when we're playing a man down. Your heart starts beating a little quicker. You don't want to let down the team. I was OK with the result. They let me pitch."

Reds manager David Bell was ejected for arguing that Schmidt should have been thrown out of the game.

"David was upset that we made him clean it off and not eject him," crew chief Brian O'Nora told a pool reporter. "I explained the situation. He kept going. I told him it was enough and he kept going. I had no choice but to eject him."

O'Nora said the umpires can choose whether to eject a pitcher or not.

"It is our discretion," O'Nora said. “[Third-base ump Nestor Ceja] checked him. He noticed something just a little tacky. He called the whole crew down. It wasn't shiny. It wasn't dark like pine tar. It was that fuzz from the inside part of his glove, I think. As a crew, we told him to go wash it off. He washed it off, nothing was on his hand. It wasn't sticky, and it wasn't a foreign substance."

The Yankees only had seven hits, but one was a solo shot by Aaron Judge, and another was a two-run blast by Anthony Rizzo. Higashioka's two-run double in the ninth broke the game open.

Schmidt and the bullpen made the runs stand up for the Yankees' fourth win in their last five games and their ninth in 12 games. Schmidt went five innings and allowed two runs on five hits, walking two and striking out six.

"He was really good," Boone said. "For the most part, he was commanding the strike zone, getting ahead of hitters. He was able to use his sinker-slider combo. I thought we had the game in control most of the night."

Schmidt was working with a lead since the game began. Judge hit his 13th home run of the season in the first -- a laser shot to right-center that left the bat at 109.6 mph. It was Judge's seventh home run in his last seven games and extended his hitting streak to seven.

Reds starter Ben Lively retired the next 16 Yankees in a row before walking Judge with two outs in the sixth.

Cincinnati then replaced Lively with reliever Ian Gibaut. Rizzo greeted him with a shot to right for his 10th of the year, and it was 3-0. It was Rizzo's 23rd home run at Great American Ball Park -- his most at any opposition stadium.

Boone has been working on avoiding a letdown with the Reds, who sit fourth in the NL Central at 19-25, after the big series with the Rays and Blue Jays.

"I've hit our guys over the head with how important this place is to me," Boone said. "I've been laying that groundwork for the last two weeks -- telling them what a big deal I think I am here.

"We need to perform here. I've been pulling out all stops."

"This place" is Cincinnati. The Reds drafted Boone in 1994, and he spent the first 6 1/2 years of his big league career with them.

"It always means so much to me coming back here," Boone said. "I always get emotional. So many things that are familiar that I've seen so many times in my life. I've gotten to see some people. This place was a huge part of my life and will forever be in my heart."

Boone had not been to Great American Ball Park since the 2015 All-Star Game when he worked the game as an analyst for ESPN.

"It's worth the wait," he said.