That was a flying green pepper at the Rogers Centre during Game 3 of ALCS

Royals’ reserve catcher Drew Butera walked Tuesday near the scene of the splat — the object that barely missed a policeman, hit the field and burst into smithereens, that is, not the Royals’ 11-8 loss on Monday at Rogers Centre.

Seeing him there compelled me to ask him what he thought had been tossed at that spot the night before.

Butera, who had been among a few Royals to poke their heads out of the dugout after the toss late Monday night, smiled and said he thought it had been, well, a green pepper.

The notion of fresh produce that wasn’t a tomato being used that way seemed to defy conventionality and the rules, as @AnswerDave reminded us, considering “no pepper games” is a time-honored guideline at baseball games.

The real question, of course, was how and why someone came to have a pepper to throw in the first place.

But a clue was delivered courtesy of Blue Jays fan Geoff Loughton, who on Twitter wrote: “i see how that cld happen — there’s a burger stand on the 500 level that uses real peppers as decoration.”

Sure enough, a visit to the 500 level paid off. Right behind the Big Smoke Food Co. cart was a possible root source of the pepper perp’s arsenal.

No word on whether authorities plan now to ban peppers as well as beer cans from the raucous 500 level.

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 5:29 PM with the headline "That was a flying green pepper at the Rogers Centre during Game 3 of ALCS."