Lance Lynn: Pine tar not universal â€” but whatâ€™s that smudge?

Lance Lynn was asked what he did to keep a firm grip on a chilly, windy day like he pitched in Thursday at Citi Field and answered with deadpan humor.

"I grabbed it with my fingers," the Cardinals starter said after the Mets' 4-1 win. "It's pretty simple."

As the Yankees and Michael Pineda have learned lately, it's not always that simple and despite Lynn's explanation, a dark spot could be seen on his brim that he touched before nearly every pitch.

"That's sweat," said Lynn, who gave up four hits and a pair of walks in 6 ¹/₃ innings, striking out nine. "Rosin or sweat is the only thing I use."

Now Lynn's touching the spot. He said it was rosin.Photo: Bill Kostroun

Terry Collins said he didn't notice anything when Lynn was on the mound.

"I'm not going to start an epidemic here," the manager said the same day Pineda was suspended for 10 games after being caught with pine tar on his neck while pitching against the Red Sox on Wednesday night in Boston.

"On certain days, even like [Wednesday] night, you can go to a hitter and ask if he cared if the pitcher had a little pine tar on his fingers, the answer was probably, 'No, I don't care — as long as he throws it near the plate and not at my head,' so I didn't notice that much today," Collins said.

Lynn, who had a ball slip out of his hands when he tried to throw out Eric Young Jr. in the sixth, was aware of Pineda's situation and said it put all pitchers in a bad light.

"That looks negative among starting pitchers and pitchers in general," Lynn said. "Obviously, people do it, because someone got caught. But not everyone does it and that's all I'm going to say."