Royals fans believe the Pirates’ closer had a foreign substance on his glove

Pirates closer Richard Rodriguez slammed the door on the Royals in Pittsburgh’s 2-1 win on Tuesday.

Rodriguez needed a mere nine pitches to get the save as he retired all three Royals batters in order.

Last year, Dodgers starter Trevor Bauer was on HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” and said Major League Baseball needs to crack down on pitchers using pine tar. He estimated 70% of MLB pitchers use pine tar.

Bauer said it gives a pitcher a big edge.

“It needs to be talked about more because it affects every single pitch,” Bauer said. “And it’s a bigger advantage than steroids ever were because if you know how to manipulate it, you can make the ball do drastically different things from pitch to pitch at the same velocity.

Pine tar is illegal for a pitcher to use.

The MLB rulebook says a pitcher is not allowed to “rub the ball on his glove, person or clothing” or “apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball” or “Have on his person, or in his possession, any foreign substance.”