Smith's suspension upheld following appeal

Left-hander Caleb Smith’s 10-game suspension for possessing a foreign substance on his glove was upheld following an appeal hearing on Sept. 7. Smith began serving the suspension Saturday and will be eligible to rejoin the D-backs on Sept. 22.

D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said Smith flew from Seattle to Phoenix, where he will remain and continue to stay in shape while he serves the suspension.

Smith was ejected after a routine substance inspection in the eighth inning of an Aug. 18 game against the Phillies. Following the ejection, Smith -- who had previously been checked after the sixth inning of that same game -- said he did not use an illegal substance. He said the substance that the umpire crew found on his glove was a mixture of dirt and rosin.

"It’s dirt," Smith said after he was ejected on Aug. 18. "The inside of my glove is baby blue, where my hand goes in is blue. Last time I checked, we play baseball and you get dirty in baseball; you sweat a lot. I touch the dirt a lot.

“There’s not a foreign substance on there. There’s not pine tar. There’s nothing on there. I don’t use that. I was very surprised. He checked it the first time and everything was fine. Nothing changed between the time he checked it the first time and the last time he checked it and had a problem with it. I have no clue."

Lovullo, who was part of the Sept. 7 hearing, said Smith reiterated that he was not using a foreign substance at the time of his ejection. The D-backs manager added that he expects Smith to be ready to rejoin the team as soon as his suspension is up.

“The comments I want to make around this are that Caleb did a wonderful job in his hearing,” Lovullo said. “He was able to articulate his point. It was crystal clear that everything was unintentional, and I will continue to stand by that.”