Bizarre ‘Ear Check’ Controversy Can’t Slow Down Musgrove & Padres

It was one of the strangest scenes in recent baseball playoff history. New York Mets manager Buck Showalter asked umpires to check San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove’s shiny ears  (yes, you read that right) during the 6th inning of their deciding Wild Card Series game Sunday night. 

Ear check. This happened. pic.twitter.com/Qasf2Logt4

— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) October 10, 2022

Twitter was ablaze with pictures of Musgrove’s extra shiny ear all night, and with the pitcher taking a no-hitter into the 5th, combined with spin rates on all his pitches up a fair bit over his norm, Showalter at least had a reason to be suspicious. 

Here are Joe Musgrove’s spin rates on every pitch tonight versus his average spin rate for the season.

You can see by the arrows on the right that the spin rate on all but one pitch is up by at least 100 rpm.

I think this explains why Buck went out there. pic.twitter.com/VxtDA5HPUN

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) October 10, 2022

After the umpires gave his ears a good massage and then cleared him, Musgrove struck out the next batter and then had a gesture..of some kind..for the Mets' dugout. 

Joe Musgrove with a little gesture to the Mets dugout! pic.twitter.com/9VBGYq8FwE

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 10, 2022

Wil Myers & Daniel Vogelbach were yelling back and forth during the inning.

After retiring Mets in order, Joe Musgrove looked back toward Buck Showalter and cupped his ear.

Musgrove has allowed one hit through six innings. His spin is up a bit. He might be a little amped.

— Kevin Acee (@sdutKevinAcee) October 10, 2022

The tactic by Showalter and the Mets obviously didn’t work, as Musgrove continued to mow them down, and became the first pitcher in baseball history to go 7 scoreless innings with one or no hits (he allowed one) in a postseason winner-take-all game. 

The Padres went on to a 6-0 victory, winning the best-of-three series 2-1, and move on to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS. 

Photo: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports