NYT: Tests on Pitcher Found Five Banned Substances

Gonna buy a box of Letrozole!

The player, Dustin Richardson, is a 26-year-old left-handed relief pitcher who played for the Boston Red Sox in 2009 and 2010 before spending all of 2011 in Class AAA with farm teams of the Florida Marlins and Atlanta Braves.

Richardson received a 50-game suspension this week after testing positive. Generally, players who test positive are linked to one banned substance. Richardson tested positive for five.

“I’ve never seen a case like this, and we’re talking about 30 years I’ve been doing this kind of work,” said Don Catlin, an antidoping expert and former director of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory.

“I’ve had doublets and triplets, but to have five, and have it cover three different subclasses of drugs, is unique, as far as I can tell.”

To start, Richardson tested positive for three anabolic steroids — Methandienone, Methenelone and Trenbolone — that are fairly common on their own, according to doping experts, but unusual in tandem.