For nearly as long as baseball has existed, pitchers have been using various methods, legal and otherwise, to doctor the ball. Some want the ball to spin more, some want it to spin less. Some are looking for more movement, and others are looking for more control.

Max Scherzer, the co-ace of the Mets, the highest-paid player in baseball and a superstar right-handed starter on a Hall of Fame track, is the latest pitcher to have his methods on the mound run up against Major League Baseball’s rules on the use of foreign substances, and the latest to make a statement that did not exactly clear things up.

In this case, Scherzer, who was ejected from Wednesday’s win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, insists he was using rosin — which is legal — and nothing more. The umpires of the game, however, claimed Scherzer’s hand was stickier than any they had previously inspected.

Scherzer made little in the way of excuses or denials about the stickiness of his hands when asked about his decision to drop his appeal and serve a 10-game suspension. But he also did not admit to doing anything wrong.