The St. Louis Cardinals said they believe Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers was scuffing the ball during Game 2 on Sunday, aside from the controversy about the smudge on the left-hander's pitching hand, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"It was so blatant," Cardinals hitting coach Hal McRae told USA TODAY. "What was so strange about it was how obvious it was, in the World Series. It's a shame a guy would cheat in a World Series game. It hurts the integrity of the game.

"He wasn't just cheating by using pine tar; he was scuffing balls, too. We collected about five or six balls that are scuffed. He had to be using his fingernails or something."

Rogers pitched eight scoreless innings to help tie the series at one game apiece, and has not allowed a run in 23 straight innings during the playoffs. He denied after the game that he had used pine tar or any other illegal substance, maintaining that it must have been a combination of mud, dirt, rosin and spit.

"Maybe it looked like pine tar; I don't know," said Rogers, 41. "I'm skeptical of a lot of stuff (in baseball), too, but I'm not skeptical of my ability to pitch. My pitching isn't that dominant. ... I just know how to pitch."

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle said that Rogers appeared to have a similar smudge at the base of his thumb in his previous playoff victories over the Yankees and A's. He has made three starts this postseason.

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"He pitched his butt off," A's third baseman Eric Chavez told The Chronicle. "I don't know enough about scuffing baseballs to know how much of an effect that it had. But, honestly, looking back, it had a little to do with it."

On Oct. 13, Rogers allowed two singles in 7 1/3 innings in the 3-0 victory over the A's that gave the Tigers a 3 games-to-1 lead in the ALCS.

"We didn't know anything was going on. We just kind of gave the guy credit, though it is well apparent he had something on his hands during all games," Chavez also told the Chronicle. "With the rules of the game, that is cheating, but logic tells us it's not cheating unless you get caught, and now it's too late."

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On Monday, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said he knew that Rogers had something on his hand in two previous playoffs starts, after watching video during their scouting reports.

"Well, 90 percent of the concentration on those tapes is trying to get an idea of how this guy is so successful and what we have to do to beat him," La Russa said. "But there was one shot that the cameras caught that you notice. It looks a little different."