They were walking about 10:10 p.m. in the 5200 block of South Artesian Avenue when someone approached them and opened fire, striking them both, Chicago police said.

Two people, including a 16-year-old boy, were shot Tuesday in Gage Park on the Southwest Side.

The teen and a 20-year-old man were walking about 10:10 p.m. in the 5200 block of South Artesian Avenue when someone approached them and opened fire, striking them both, Chicago police said.

The boy was struck multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, police said. The man suffered three gunshot wounds to his back and was taken to the same hospital, where he was also in critical condition.

Police said the attacker was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

No arrests have been reported. Area One detectives are investigating.

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Bryant was removed in the second inning of the Cubs’ 3-2 loss on Tuesday after being hit in the right hand.

NEW YORK – Kris Bryant left removed from Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Mets with a right hand bruise. Bryant took a fastball off of his right hand during his first at-bat of the night and looked to be in pain.

Bryant stayed in the game to run the bases after being checked out by manager David Ross and the team’s training staff, but was replaced by Patrick Wisdom in the second inning. It’s the second time this season Bryant has been hit in the hand/wrist this season.

Ross said after the game that Bryant’s X-rays came back negative, but would wait and see to decide if he’ll be in the lineup on Wednesday.

The Cubs multi-positional superstar has been having an MVP-caliber first half, slashing .292/.374/.544 with 13 home runs, 38 RBIs and a team-leading 16 doubles.

Mills strikes out six in spot start

The Cubs have needed innings from different places with starters Adbert Alzolay and Trevor Williams on the 10-day injured list. Right-hander Alec Mills got his number called in his first start since April 13 and just his second since coming off the IL.

Mills wasn’t bad on short notice and was in control for most of his outing. After the Cubs took an early 2-0 lead on Javy Baez’s two-run shot in the third inning, the Mets came right back with two runs of their own on a two-run single by Pete Alonso, tying the game at 2.

Alonso gave the Mets the lead in the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly to make it a 3-2 game. Mills finished the game allowing three runs on five hits over 4 1/3 innings. He walked two batters and struck out six.

“I think it’s something we talked about at the beginning of the year,” Mills said. “We were gonna need more than just the five starters. I think everybody across the league is seeing that now. I think to jump from 60 to 162 is just a big toll on the body. We were just doing what we can to stay healthy. I’m doing everything I can just to be available whenever they need me.”

The Cubs had an opportunity to tie the game in the ninth inning after Eric Sogard singled to the right-field gap. Jake Marisnick, who came in to pinch-run for Willson Contreras, went first to third and got waved home by third base coach Willie Harris who made an aggressive send.

But the Mets made the perfect relay on the play as outfielder Kevin Pillar fired the ball to second baseman Luis Guillorme, who threw out Marisnick at the plate.

“I always err on the side of aggressiveness,” Ross said. “I thought that was a really nice relay by Guillorme. Almost a blind turn and throw to get our fastest baserunner trying to make something happen there late. I don’t have a problem with that at all.”

Stock gets the nod on Wednesday

Right-hander Robert Stock will make the start for the Cubs on Wednesday against two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom. Stock will be making his first appearance for the Cubs after being claimed off waivers in the offseason.

Stock has gotten rave reviews for his stuff during his recent stretch starting in Triple-A and has been consistently hitting and sitting at 100 mph in four-inning bursts.

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The incident happened in the 3800 block of West Monroe Street, according to Chicago fire officials.

At least four people were wounded in a shooting Tuesday night on the West Side in the city’s second mass shooting of the day.

The incident happened in the 3800 block of West Monroe Street, according to Chicago fire officials.

Two males with gunshot wounds were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where their conditions were stabilized, officials said. Another male and a female were taken to Stroger Hospital. Their conditions were also stabilized.

Chicago police didn’t immediately release details on the circumstances of the shooting.

The shooting is the second on Tuesday with at least four gunshot victims, and it is the fourth mass shooting in Chicago in a little over a week.

Earlier Tuesday, four people were fatally shot and four others wounded inside a house in the 6200 block of South Morgan in Englewood.

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Dallas Keuchel is glad he came.

The 33-year-old former Cy Young and World Series winner in the second year of his three-year deal with the White Sox is enjoying pitching for a winner and being part of a pitching staff he says is the best he has been a part of.

“As a whole from five starters and seven or eight relievers that we have, is the best that I’ve ever seen,” Keuchel said.

The 2018 Astros starting rotation of Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Keuchel, Lance McCullers and Charlie Morton comprised “the best five starters I’ve ever seen on a baseball field together,” Keuchel said. “Here it’s just the complete package.”

Lance Lynn, Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease and Keuchel have done the bulk of the work that has the Sox ranked second in the majors in ERA at 2.96. Keuchel’s seven scoreless innings Tuesday against the 43-24 Rays Tuesday night lowered his to 3.78, very close to the 3.74 mark he posted in 2018. Although the Sox bullpen hasn’t peaked, Keuchel sees a higher ceiling with the talent of Liam Hendriks, Michael Kopech [currently on injured list], Garrett Crochet and Aaron Bummer.

“It’s fun. This is what I signed up for,” Keuchel said.

“When you have two guys [Rodon and Lynn] vying for the Cy Young this early, you know you are on a pretty good track, and getting Hendriks was a big time plus.

“With fans in the stands, its’ a different aspect as well. It gets the blood pumping more. I’m definitely hoping we make a deep October run this year because this place is rowdy.”

Another lively crowd of 19,259 at Guaranteed Rate Field saw the Sox score two in the fourth against left-hander Shane McClanahan and one in the fifth on Adam Engel’s third homer in seven games.

The pair in the fourth came when Andrew Vaughn, who would have been a dead duck at home with a good throw from left fielder Randy Arozarena, scored when it bounced through catcher Francisco Mejia, allowing Leury Garcia, who was on second to continue motoring home for a 2-0 lead.

Keuchel, who has allowed three earned runs over his last three starts, allowed four hits and walked one. He struck out five.

While the other starters feature mid-to-upper 90 mph velocity, Keuchel gives a different look, the soft tosser throwing sinkers in the 87-89 mph range, cutters around 85 mph, and changeups at 80. He divides those three evenly, with an occasional slider mixed in at 77 mph, per Brooks Baseball.

This makes him something of a dying breed of pitcher succeeding with changing speeds, moving the ball around and getting ground balls without throwing the ball as hard as he can. MLB’s crackdown on foreign substances announced Tuesday might encourage pitchers to get back to sinking the ball, Keuchel said.

“Everything goes in spurts and right now it’s the four-seam [fastball],” Keuchel said.

“You’ll see about a quarter, maybe 35 or 40 percent go back to sinking the ball and then throwing some sliders.”

MLB intensified its enforcement of rules that prohibit applying foreign substances to baseballs Tuesday, measures that won’t affect him, Keuchel said.

“It was kind of a gentleman’s rule for so long but you make it so obvious now. It’s kind of hard not to crack down,” Keuchel said. “This is coming from a guy who doesn’t use anything. I literally will rub up the ball with my sweat. So at places I don’t sweat, I have trouble commanding the baseball. You can’t be out there toying with your glove or tossing the ball back and forth like some of these guys.”

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The attack is the third mass shooting in Chicago in little over a week and came at the end of a burst of violence that saw more than 25 people shot across the city in 10 hours.

One by one, the family of Denice Mathis walked up to the police tape on the block in Englewood and reached out to each other. Some sobbed, others cursed.

Down the street, inside a two-story house with a gray stone front, lay Mathis and the bodies of two women and a man killed in a shooting that seriously wounded four other people early Tuesday.

Mathis, 35, was a mother of four boys and a girl, and had just taken her children to Six Flags over the weekend.

Also killed was Shermetria Williams, 19, the mother of a 2-year-old daughter. She was set to graduate from Country Club Hills Trade & Tech Center on Tuesday.

The third woman who died in the attack was Ratanya Aryiel Rogers, 28, who lived in Rogers Park, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s officer.

The fourth fatality was Blake Lee, 35, who lived in the home and did odd jobs in the neighborhood, relatives said. He had recently lost his mother to diabetes and grandmother to several illnesses, including a bad heart.

The attack is the third mass shooting in Chicago in a little over a week and came at the end of a burst of violence that saw more than 25 people shot across the city in 10 hours.

The attack prompted Mayor Lori Lightfoot to say Chicago has joined a “club of cities to which no one wants to belong: cities with mass shootings.”

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Lightfoot — as she repeatedly has done — decried lack of federal action aimed at “eliminating opportunity for criminals, for children, to get access to illegal guns so that petty disputes turn into mass shooting events, as we’ve seen over and over and over again.”

The Rev. Donovan Price, who regularly goes to shooting scenes to provide support for gun violence victims and their loved ones, said he’s never seen anything like the last 10 days in the more than five years he’s worked as a street pastor.

“This is the worst ever,” said Price, whose voice quivered at times as he spoke of Tuesday’s tragedy. “It’s worse now than it’s ever been. It’s devastating.”

Chicago police released few details of how the eight people were shot but said it occurred when an argument broke out inside the home.

Four of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene shortly before 6 a.m., and four others were taken to hospitals, at least two of them in critical condition. A 2-year-old girl in the home at the time was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital for observation. She was not shot.

A witness told police there were two volleys of gunshots inside the home, hours apart.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

The first was around 2 a.m., when the ShotSpotter system alerted police to gunfire near the Morgan address, according to Police Supt. David Brown. He did not say if police responded to the alert.

The witness heard shots again around 5 a.m., around the time officers arrived to find the victims. Police recovered shell casings inside the house and a large capacity “drum magazine.”

There was no sign of forced entry, Brown said. At least one of the victims lived at the address, a barber who cut hair out of the house.

Brown did not elaborate on the relationships of the victims and the shooter, or what the argument was about.

Brown said the victims taken to hospitals had not yet been interviewed by detectives, and the investigation still was “very preliminary.”

“All we know about this residence is there’s been several calls there for disturbances,” Brown told reporters. “Overall, the block where this residence is located is fairly quiet, not much activity going on that requires a police response.”

As officers worked the scene into the late morning, a crowd of distraught relatives and neighbors gathered along the police tape blocking off Morgan Street.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Mathis’ family said she was a devoted mother. “She was a good person — a free-spirited person,” said a cousin, Vickie Smith. “She loved her family.”

Mathis lived on the South Side, but the family didn’t know what brought her to the gathering on South Morgan.

A man who said he was Mathis’ brother said his sister had been to the house many times before. “She was a good girl — none of these knuckleheads,” the brother said.

Demetrius Williams said he was at home in Maywood, putting on a shirt and tie for his daughter Shermetria’s graduation when he heard she had been killed.

“This is unbelievable — a massacre,” said Williams, struggling to compose his thoughts as officers took down the crime tape around the Englewood house. “Why? Why did this have to happen?”

Williams still held the ticket for his daughter’s graduation. Back home were red roses and balloons that said, “Congratulations.”

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

“All she wanted to do was take care of her daughter and be successful in life,” the father said. “She meant the world to me. That was my baby girl.”

Also standing and waiting for answers outside the police tape was Raheem Hall, who grew up in Englewood and always had words of caution for his nephew, Blake Lee.

“I told him just to be careful out here. Stay away from the wrong crowd,” Hall said.

Blake lived in the house where the attack occurred. “He was a good guy,” said Hall, who now lives in Indiana. “He did no harm to no one. He was just trying to live his life as an ordinary guy.”

“He wasn’t really a guy that started trouble or anything like that, if anything, he’d try to diffuse a situation… he just got caught up in a tragic moment,” Hall said.

Blake had had a hard life, his uncle said, but he was also enjoying things recently, having traveled to Miami on vacation, his uncle said.

Price, founder and executive director of solutions and resources|Street Pastors, spent most of the morning on the Morgan block, praying over the victims and their families as well as comforting people who lived in the area.

He said he spoke to a young boy who said his mother was one of the victims who died. “The whole thing is bad. There’s a lot of family,” Price said. “This is a terrible situation and a lasting and damaging situation for the South Side [and] for the city.”

Similar scenes played out through the day at the hospitals where the wounded were taken.

A group of about 10 people waited outside the University of Chicago Hospital, where a 25-year-old woman was taken in critical condition after being shot on Morgan.

A 45-year-old man said his daughter remained in surgery as of 12:45 p.m. The man said his daughter worked at Lawrence’s Fish & Shrimp.

After he walked away, several women began to weep. One woman dropped to the ground and buried her face in her hands.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

One person wrapped her arms around another and rubbed their back to comfort them as they stood against a chain-linked fence and faced the emergency room entrance.

“She got shot in the head,” another person sobbed on the phone as they walked away.

Outside Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, relatives said the man who lived in the home, James Tolbert, 41, was “alert and coherent.”

Tolbert operated a barbershop from his home after COVID-19 restrictions closed down the shop where he worked. The 2-year-old girl taken to Comer for observation is his daughter, according to Tolbert’s sister, Michelle Tolbert.

Waiting outside the emergency room entrance, Michelle Tolbert said she learned her brother had been shot from a Facebook post and feared the worst.

“There were a lot of people putting up ‘RIP’ posts, so I was worried,” she said.

Hospital staff would not let her up to her brother’s room but said Tolbert no longer was in critical condition. “They told me he’s awake, he’s responsive.”

Michelle Tolbert said her brother had a jovial “barbershop” personality and had studied to be an EMT before going to barber college.

“He’s a good person,” she said. “He definitely didn’t deserve this.”

The attack is the third mass shooting in Chicago in little over a week and came just hours after gunfire erupted at a party in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side, killing a man and wounding two women.

Early Saturday, a woman was killed and nine others wounded near 75th Street and South Prairie Avenue. Kimfier Miles, 29, a mother of three, was out with a group of girlfriends when two men opened fire about 2 a.m. Saturday.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

The weekend before, six men and two women were wounded when someone in a silver car opened fire in a shooting in the 8900 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue in the Burnside neighborhood.

There have been 390 homicides in Cook County so far this year, according to the medical examiner’s office, nearly 300 of them in Chicago. This time last year, the county had recorded 342.

Lightfoot blamed the violence on the lack of national laws that would curb the flow of illegal guns.

“When gun [laws] are so porous that they can come across our borders with such ease, as we see every single day in Chicago, we know that we have to have a multi-jurisdictional, national solution to this horrible plague of gun violence,” she said. “And that starts with eliminating opportunity for criminals, for children to get access to illegal guns so that petty disputes turn into mass shooting events, as we’ve seen over and over and over again—not just this year, but every year.”

Lightfoot bristled when asked how the steady stream of mass shootings might impact her efforts to reopen the city and encourage Chicagoans to come downtown to dine and shop and patronize the stores and restaurants in their own neighborhoods.

She noted that the Englewood shooting happened “inside a single residence” — not out on the street or in a large outdoor gathering.

“The reality is, our city is safe,” the mayor said. “And I stand by that. We have done yeoman’s work over the course of a very difficult year where every major city—New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Atlanta and on and on the list goes—has seen similar surge in violence.”

Pressed about the perception of safety, she said, “What I’m concerned about is the fact that people lost their lives this morning. I’m concerned about the fact that there are people who are dead in an act of violence that makes no sense to me.”

Asked whether she believes Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is doing a good job prosecuting gun offenders, Lightfoot pointed to what one of the state’s attorney’s top aides said about the Chicago Police Department during a recent webinar for reporters.

“The conclusion of her policy person was that the Chicago Police Department is arresting the wrong people who possess guns. I fundamentally disagree with that,” she said. “We are a city that’s awash in illegal guns. Those illegal guns cause deep pain and injury and death.”

Contributing: Mary Chappell

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The Edgewater-based record label has a roster of blues legends including Koko Taylor, Lil’ Ed Williams, Shemekia Copeland and former CTA bus driver Toronzo Cannon, among many others.

Bruce Iglauer, founder and president of independent Blues record label Alligator Records, says he initially came to Chicago in 1966 as a “blues pilgrim” who wanted to check out the University of Chicago Folk Festival.

Decades later, ahead of Mayor Lori Lightfoot declaring June 18 as “Alligator Records Day” in Chicago, Iglauer is looking back at the nuances of starting an influential record label in a blues mecca.

“I’ve recorded blues artists all over the country, but I started here in Chicago because this is still the home of the blues in this country,” said Iglauer, a Wyoming, Ohio, native who founded Alligator Records in 1971. “This is still the city with more active blues musicians and more active blues clubs than any other. I call myself a blues pilgrim because I came here for the blues, and I could have ran this label from Cincinnati; it wouldn’t have been the same label. It feels great.”

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Iglauer and Alligator Records won’t rest on their laurels for long. In fact, the label’s legendary roster of blues artists — many of them directly influenced by one another, including Hound Dog Taylor, Koko Taylor, Shemekia Copeland, Nick Moss, Lil’ Ed Williams (leader of Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials), Toronzo Cannon, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and Selwyn Birchwood — are featured on the Edgewater-based label’s anniversary release, “Alligator Records: 50 Years Of Genuine Houserockin’ Music,” which be available June 18 on LP and three-disc CD set.

“When I started I had $2,500 — that’s all I had to invest,” said Iglauer. “So I made Hound Dog Taylor’s first record in eight hours in the studio, and we mixed it as we went because I couldn’t afford multitrack recording and mixing later. We just mixed it directly to track on the fly.”

The label’s name, Iglauer says, partly stems from the inability of some folks to pronounce his last name. And, over time, as he signed acts to the label, Iglauer says he got to know his artists through their music.

“Alligator was my nickname, and it comes from this funny habit I have of listening to music and unconsciously, not knowing I’m doing it, playing drum parts by clicking my teeth together,” said Iglauer. “I’ve got this weird last name — Iglauer — which nobody can spell or pronounce. And then beyond that, alligators come from the South; blues, the music I love, is all Southern-rooted.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

“[The blues] is grown-up music, for sure. Toronzo was raised by his grandparents who were blues fans. His mom was a teenager when he was born and she wasn’t ready to be raising kids. Lil’ Ed is a nephew of — in my world — a famous Chicago musician named J.B. Hutto who recorded starting in the 1950s and recorded into the early ’80s.”

Billy Branch, a singer and harmonica player, says Alligator Records emerged in an era when the music and its record companies were abundant. He calls the label “the last man standing.”

“There were quite a few Chicago labels, and Bruce has maintained a catalog of some of the greatest artists that ever lived,” said Branch, who first recorded music for the label in 1978. “I’m happy to say I was a part of maybe a dozen or more different Alligator recordings.”

Alligator Records

After garnering a stockpile of awards, fame and prestige, Alligator’s roster in recent years has produced music with a social justice aspect.

For instance, the aforementioned Cannon, a retired CTA bus driver and guitarist, has a song named “Insurance,” which details the horrors of not being able to afford health insurance, and Nick Moss’ “Sanctified, Holy And Hateful” is about how religion is utilized to fuel hate.

Alligator’s history and influence has made an impact on blues artists everywhere — and that bears fruit in the label’s current roster.

Cannon says he was influenced by several Alligator artists, not knowing they were all on the same label.

“When I first started practicing, I’d look to the famous guys to learn from,” said Cannon. “I didn’t know there was an Alligator Records. I didn’t have any concept of record companies. I was just buying stuff that sounds good.”

Ingram, a guitarist, joined Alligator in 2019. He says it’s not only an honor to be associated with blues heavyweights, he revels in carrying on the tradition.

“It’s humbling for me. I owe a big, big chunk of my career to the blues greats,” said Ingram, a Mississippi resident. “It’s awesome to be a part of something that’s stamped down in history, and can never be erased. I’m very grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given.”

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After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Devinair English denied the police account of what took place the night Lil Durk’s brother, Dontay “DThang” Banks, was shot dead.

An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for a south suburban man who allegedly shot a police officer during a chaotic scene outside a Harvey strip club earlier this month in which rapper Lil Durk’s brother was killed.

Devinair English, 23, of Maywood, is wanted for aggravated battery to a peace officer and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in connection to the June 6 shooting outside Club O, 17038 S. Halsted St., according to court records and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

English was an associate of fledgling rapper Dontay “DThang” Banks, who was fatally wounded in a separate shooting that happened around the same time in the club’s parking lot. Banks is the brother of local rap superstar Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks.

No charges have been filed in English’s case or Banks’ killing, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office said.

‘Multiple gunshots were ringing out’

Reached by phone Tuesday, English was unaware that a warrant had been issued for his alleged role in the officer’s shooting. “None of that’s true,” he said after learning of the allegations.

As the club was closing that night, a police officer who was stationed outside the club “for crowd control” reported that “gunfire erupted throughout the lot,” according to Harvey police records obtained by the Sun-Times.

“Multiple gunshots were ringing out, as patrons fled in all directions,” according to a police report, which noted that security guards were also present.

Around the same time, English was allegedly “involved in a physical altercation” with a pair of responding officers when one of the cops noticed he had a handgun and wrestled it away, police records show. In the process, the officer was shot in the left thigh, and English took off. The officer was listed in good condition, according to a Harvey spokeswoman.

The other officer later tried to unjam the weapon that was taken, at which point a single spent round was “expelled from the chamber,” police records show.

English said he was merely giving the gun to his cousin, who he said has a license to carry it publicly.

“We pulled the car around and in the midst of me hopping out and trying to give my cousin his firearm, the police grabbed me,” he said.

In April, English pleaded guilty to a drug charge out of Chicago and was sentenced to two years probation, court records show.

English said he’s unsure what exactly happened elsewhere in the parking lot, though he noted that “an argument broke out” and others started shooting as he was wrestling with the officers.

A police report notes that “firearms began discharging by unknown subjects at the southeast corner of the building, with return gunfire by unknown subjects at the northeast corner of the building.”

Officers ultimately found Banks near an SUV that was damaged by gunfire, police records show. Multiple shell casings were found nearby.

“The individual had an unruly crowd surrounding him,” a police report states. “A large puddle of blood was near his head [and] neck area.”

Banks, who lived in Chicago’s Gresham neighborhood, suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Some of his associates took him to South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, where he died, according to police records and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Herschel Rush, an attorney for Banks’ family, declined comment.

Banks’ funeral service was held last week.

4 types of shell casings found

After the shootings, four different types of shell casings littered the parking lot and “bloodlike stains” covered the pavement in multiple locations, police records show.

At least one person was taken for questioning, police records show. While in custody, that person said he did marketing work for Banks and attempted to leave the scene in the SUV because he was “emotional” about the shooting.

He also told investigators that English was among a group that accompanied Banks to the strip club that night, an account English confirmed.

The person added that Banks got into an argument with an unknown male who shot him and fled the scene, records show. His description of the shooter broadly matched a description security personnel provided of one of the individuals involved in the gunfight.

Police were investigating if another fatal shooting hours later was possible retaliation.

Contributing: David Struett

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times, Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

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According to MLB’s new guidelines, the penalty for foreign substances being found on a player’s person will result in a 10-game suspension. 

NEW YORK – After weeks of hearing about “sticky stuff” around the game, pitchers have found themselves in different sticky situations with MLB’s announcement of the banning and strict enforcement of foreign substances.

In a memo sent by MLB on Tuesday, the league announced tacky substances including the popular products like Spider Tack, Pelican Grip. The mixture of sunscreen and rosin, which has been used in the game for decades, was also included on the list of banned substances.

Cubs pitchers had a meeting before Tuesday’s game against the Mets to discuss the different changes, which will begin to be enforced on June 21, as the team and the league tries to navigate the new rules.

“I think we were all kind of anticipating and understanding that something was going to come out,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. We’re just waiting for it to become official and then talk through what we need to do moving forward.”

The league cracking down on foreign substances comes amid seemingly nightly evidence of pitchers around the league using different substances with some using for increased grip while others do it to increase their spin rate and RPM.

According to Tuesday’s memo, the penalty for foreign substances being found on a player’s person will result in a 10-game suspension.

There has been clear frustrations from players, coaches and managers around the league as umpires have been enforcing substance more over the last several weeks as the conversation around foreign substances had begun to grow.

“Going into this year, it would have been nice to have a clear cut path for a lot of guys,” starter Zach Davies said. “But now, you’re having to U-turn in the middle of the season and try and figure things out. That’s frustrating. It’s annoying to have to talk about when it all could have been settled in spring training and guys aren’t worrying about trying to win ballgames.

“You have to answer more questions now that don’t really pertain to you, just because you’re part of the game. Over the last few years, we could have talked about baseball changing every year, but that’s not really brought up.”

Davies’ point about baseball’s changing is something that’s one the radar on pitchers and coaches around the league with pitchers describing the inconsistency in baseballs not only from ballpark to ballpark, but also within a start – varying from the seams on the ball to the slick and chalky surface – leading to a much greater emphasis on grip.

In a season where the league has seen hit batters per game skyrocket, that trend might continue to trend in the wrong direction now as pitchers try to navigate slick baseballs without anything to help grip.

“I would say that we have to put an emphasis on making sure that the baseball is uniform,” manager David Ross said. “Everywhere you go, you definitely hear pitchers talking about when [they] go on the road at this place, the balls are a little more chalky than in that place whether that has to do with climate or humidity, lack of humidity, or how somebody rubs them, there’s so many variables in that and I think we just have to get back to finding some form with that.”

While there has been chagrin in regards to how the league has decided to suddenly enforce banned substances, one thing many in the game have agreed on is the need to do something about the abuse of sticky substances to gain an advantage.

The hope is that there is a solution that addresses those issues in the near future.

“I don’t know if there’s another way to do it, though,” Hottovy said. “You almost have to hit the reset button and then kind of figure out from there what you want to do as a league. I think the minute you start giving exceptions to one thing, you’re going to have people kind of complain about other things.

“I think that’s the way you have to handle it and then we as an industry have to adjust and I think if that causes guys to have to back off their stuff to throw strikes, that’s pitching. That’s part of the game. Will it affect people? Absolutely. But again, I think to control the broader scheme, I think you have to start with a clean slate.”

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