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Yankees will handle substance on Kikuchi's hat 'behind the scenes'

Alex Trautwig / Major League Baseball / Getty

The New York Yankees won't be sharing their thoughts and opinions about what was under the bill of Yusei Kikuchi's cap on Wednesday.

During a 10-1 blowout loss to the Seattle Mariners, in which Kikuchi carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, video surfaced of what appeared to be a foreign substance on the Japanese hurler's cap.

The substance caused an uproar, with fans shouting at home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez to check Kikuchi's hat. Nothing was done during the game, and MLB hasn't issued a penalty or statement on the matter yet.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who said postgame he was made aware of the substance during the eighth inning, addressed the issue again, adding that the team will continue investigating while keeping the process private.

"We'll kind of handle it behind the scenes, how we think it's proper," the manager said, according to The Associated Press.

Players face ejection and an automatic 10-game suspension for illegally doctoring a ball during a game, according to the league's rule book.

Wednesday's crew chief Dana DeMuth said on Thursday that the umpires didn't see anything under Kikuchi's cap, and neither team mentioned it during the game.

"Nobody said a thing," DeMuth said. "He wasn't doing anything suspicious. In fact, he kept getting a new ball, and he'd throw the old one out toward the Yankees' dugout. It wasn't like he was trying to hide anything."

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