New York Mets reliever Drew Smith was ejected from Tuesday night's game against the New York Yankees after failing a sticky substance check.

The Mets sent Smith to the mound in the seventh inning. When he took the field, first base umpire Bill Miller performed an extensive foreign substance check of his hands, conferred with the umpire crew and tossed the pitcher.

"Drew Smith was ejected because he had sticky hands," Miller, the crew chief, told a pool reporter. "I don't know what's on his hand, all I know it was sticky -- sticky to the touch. It stuck to my hands when I touched it. Not only his pitching hand, but his glove hand as well."

Smith officially went down in the box score as 0.0 innings pitched, zero pitches.

"They said both of my hands were too sticky," Smith said. "Really surprised, because I haven't done anything different all year. Sweat and rosin. I don't know what else to say. Nothing changed. It's just, I think the process is so arbitrary. It can change from one crew to the other, and I think that's the main issue."

Miller said Smith's hand was the stickiest he's felt this season and that the other three umpires agreed.

"I think if something's sticky, it's illegal," Miller said. "They cannot manipulate the rosin. They can't use foreign substance. I don't know what was on his hand. But his hand was sticky to the touch, where my hand stuck to his hand."