ST. LOUIS — A day later, baseball was still trying to get a grip on what Kenny Rogers had on his hand.

The Detroit pitcher answered wave after wave of questions Monday, making this percolating World Series flap seem like an innocent mistake. Mud, resin, spit, dirt — he insisted that's what everyone saw at the base of his left thumb in Game 2.

An hour or so later, the Tigers found out what St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa thought about Rogers' explanation.

"I don't believe it was dirt," La Russa said. "Didn't look like dirt."

The Tigers got to hear it for themselves, too, because La Russa's words from the interview room boomed all around Busch Stadium, courtesy of the PA system. He never mentioned pine tar, but many believed that's what Rogers really used.

Beyond the ballpark, it was the No. 1 topic in sports.

"We know it's all over the place right now," umpires' supervisor Steve Palermo said.

Partly because some photographs from Rogers' start in the AL championship series against Oakland showed what appeared to be the same kind of yellowish-brown smudge on his pitching hand that caught everyone's attention Sunday night.

Prompted by La Russa, the umpires asked Rogers to clean off his left hand before the second inning. He wound up pitching eight shutout innings in a 3-1 victory that evened the World Series at one game each.

Game 3 is Tonight, with reigning NL Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter starting against Nate Robertson. The forecast is for cool conditions.

It's commonly known within baseball that pitchers sometimes put some sort of substance on their hands in chilly weather to help them grip the ball. A little bit, that's OK; too much, that borders on cheating.

"There's a line that I think that defines the competition. And you can sneak over the line, because we're all fighting for the edge," La Russa said. "I always think, 'Does it go to the point of abuse?' And that's where you start snapping."

Rogers, who's gone from playoff farce to postseason force this October, stood in the clubhouse and tried to explain away what happened.

"I rub up the balls between the innings and before the game all of the time," he said. "I rub up the bullpen balls I pitch with mud, resin, spit. I do it all the time. They rub the ball up, too, with mud before the games.

"The game balls, they're dirty. Usually, when I get done, there's not much on my hand, but I guess a little bit more than normal. I wiped it off and proceeded to pitch seven pretty good innings," he said. "Mud, resin, sweat. It's always there. I try not to go crazy with it, but it's not making my pitches do anything crazy."

Rogers has pitched 23 scoreless innings this postseason — after going 0-3 with an 8.85 ERA in previous postseasons.

La Russa said he brought the smudge to the umpires' attention, but did not demand they search Rogers because he didn't want to make a big deal about it.

And yes, La Russa said the Cardinals were aware Rogers had a similar spot earlier in the postseason.

"I said, 'I don't like this stuff, let's get it fixed.' If it gets fixed let's play the game. It got fixed, in my opinion," La Russa said.