Tampa relief pitcher Joel Peralta ejected from game

Though the unspoken rules of major league baseball are often strictly adhered to, it would appear that the Nationals have broken one such rule in an attempt to remove Tampa Bay's relief pitcher Joel Peralta for the presence of pine tar on his glove.

The Nationals had once been the home team for Peralta, and there seems to be no apparent animosity between the two parties. However, in the eighth inning of a 5-4 game that the Rays were winning, the Nationals suddenly asked for the blue to check Peralta's glove -- where they happened to find pine tar.

This has led Joe Maddon, manager of the Rays, to accuse the Nationals of some dirty playing. "If you had done really good police work and noticed something from a distance that's one thing, but that's way too easy... To point one guy out because he had pitched there, where there's probably some common knowledge based on that, I thought it was a real cowardly ... move," said Maddon of the Nationals.

Peralta, though obviously annoyed by the move, seems to be happy that at least Washington didn't take home the win that night.

This begs the question: were the Nationals being poor sports and picking on a former player, or were they justified in calling him out for breaking the rules?