CHICAGO — We’re all tired of hearing players say they have no idea how performance-enhancing drugs got into their systems after their failed tests become public.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, who was at US Cellular Field on Thursday night, had an interesting comment on how players react to the media after their violations and suspensions are announced.

“I would say this, without commenting on any particular individual, I think it’s very difficult in a situation like this and it’s hard for any player to address the media with complete candor. It’s really hard to expect that,’’ Manfred said. “Usually when you have a problem like this, there’s a period of time involved for a player to take full responsibility for what happened and I don’t think baseball players are any different than others.’’

Manfred believes in baseball’s testing program and that the results are impeccable. The process is foolproof in the eyes of Major League Baseball.

“Most importantly, the suspensions that we’ve had are evidence of the fact that we have a first-rate enforcement program,’’ Manfred said. “We have custom protocols as good as anywhere in sports. And I’m leaving the word ‘professional’ out on purpose. I take great pride in our investigative capacity. Both of those enforcement mechanisms have been in place this year. We’re always disappointed when a player makes a bad decision. I think we’re doing the right thing in protecting the integrity of the sport.’’

There’s certainly been a lot of discussion as to whether testing has gotten so sophisticated that it’s now picking up very small traces of drugs in a player’s system.

“We don’t talk a lot about specific changes but I will say this, we have made improvements in the program in terms of lengthening the windows of detection,’’ Manfred said. “It’s not baseball specific but the science is getting a little better. That’s the heart of the issue.’’

Baseball has always been held to a higher standard than other sports on PED usage. In the NFL, a failed drug test gets a player a four-game suspension, one-quarter of the regular season. Eighty games is half of the MLB season.

“I do think fans care more about PEDs in baseball, and quite frankly, I embrace that higher standard,’’ Manfred said. “It drives me and drives us to try to be the best we can possibly be in the programs we run to prevent the use of PEDs. The reason I embrace higher standards is the reflection that our fans have a special bond with the game that’s really important to the game going forward,’’ Manfred said.

Yet, the recent suspensions of Chris Colabello and Dee Gordon have made people suspicious again, to the point where Cubs ace Jake Arrieta had to defend his success over the past year after being accused of using PEDs on a Chicago talk show.

“A player being put in a position where he has to defend himself against allegations that have no basis is a really unfortunate circumstance,’’ Manfred said. “One thing — I’ve talked about this occasionally in the context of Hall of Fame balloting — I know from my own experience that I’ve learned about performance-enhancing drugs, you can’t tell who is using performance-enhancing drugs based on things like personal appearance, outstanding performance, they’re just not accurate predictors. If someone is using performance-enhancing drugs, our testing program is the one sure way to know that’s happening.’’

MLB has also been criticized for how long the players’ appeal process takes. Colabello and Gordon tested positive during spring training, but were allowed to keep playing a few weeks into the season.

“We have a time frame in the appeal process,’’ Manfred said. “There’s a certain amount of science involved. We can’t make the labs get results or get confirmations faster than they do them in the ordinary course. The second thing is, these are very serious suspensions that are handed down. These are 80-game suspensions, or, God forbid, you’re in the mode of a second or third offense. Because the suspensions are so serious, I think when you do an appeal process you need to give the player a genuine opportunity to raise whatever he has with respect to a potential discipline.’’

Talks are underway on a new collective bargaining agreement. It would appear that steeper penalties could come into play. Manfred wouldn’t get into it, but even the players have talked about stiffer penalties.

Red Sox players have discussed this topic over the last few days, and they are critical of players who don’t confess to using. The players who have been caught have seemed to challenge whether the testing is flawed.

But as Manfred said, there’s never been more confidence in the testing than there is now. And while there’s a theory that the cheaters are always ahead of the testing process, maybe that’s beginning to turn the other way.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.