Right off the bat, almost everyone on the pitch Tuesday night thought the ball was gone.
Cody Bellinger did it, swinging his bat and admiring the high-flying ball he sent soaring through cool Southern California skies.
Dave Roberts was also confident, expecting to see practice fly over the center field fence at Dodger Stadium.
Even San Francisco Giants pitcher John Brebbia conceded, glancing quickly at the towering shot over his shoulder before turning his back in defeat.
“I thought it was going to kill someone trying to catch him in 10th,” Brebbia later told The Athletic.
The ball, however, never reached the stands. He didn’t even hit the wall. Once again, what seemed like an almost certain home run was dead in an outfielder’s glove. Once again, the sport’s latest adjustment to baseball had left doubts as to what might have been.
After unwittingly using juice balls in 2019 and then trying to adapt to several variations over the past two years, Major League Baseball decided to make more ball-related changes this season, continuing to tinker its composition and physical characteristics while adding a cellar to each ballpark for the first time.
The league’s hope was that a softball would reduce home runs and increase action on the field of play.
So far, this has had the intended effect, but with controversial consequences.
Baseball flyers found that bullets this year have more drag when traveling through the air. Baseball analyst Derek Carty also found that, even adjusting for the typical early-season cold weather, the home run rate has dropped significantly this year. Data from the MLB Statcast has shown that “barreled” balls (those that hit within an optimal range of exit velocity and launch angle) don’t travel that far or producing such a high percentage of slugging like the last few seasons either.
As a result, players saw seemingly purely hit swings die before the close. Readers who were once considered safe are now unsure as they hurtle through the air.
“The ball just doesn’t fly as well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s just that hitters aren’t being rewarded. »
Roberts estimated the Dodgers have had at least a dozen fly balls this season that likely would have been homers in years past. He believes this factored into some of his players’ disappointing attacking starts. And while he was not outwardly critical of the league or the Balls themselves, the adjustment was no less striking in the first month of the season.
“It is what it is, we can’t change it,” Roberts said. “Everyone in baseball goes through this. »
Bellinger, who has 137 home runs in his six MLB seasons, struck a similar tone.
“We knew it was happening this year,” the centre-back said. “Throughout my professional career, the balls have changed so much. I just think consistency is important. Whether it’s those balls or not, there has to be a consistent factor for them.
Bellinger thought his fly ball on Tuesday was an example, acknowledging that even though it was a rough night at Chavez Ravine, “I hit balls like that before it was gone, so I thought it was gone. »
The Dodgers’ Max Muncy, who hit against the Rockies on April 8, said players can’t do much about sleeping baseballs. “It’s the ball they’ve been out with this year, so we have to adapt to that. »
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
He was not alone.
The Giants had a few long steals in the game that even Roberts thought were missing. The Dodgers’ Max Muncy also threw a fly ball into right field that appeared to be heading for the seats before dying on the cautionary trail.
“From the start,” Muncy said, “it was really good. »
While Muncy noted his practice exit speed was just 97.8 mph – well hit but not burned – he also wondered how the new ball conditions were affecting his flight.
“I’ve definitely hit worse ones than the one that’s come out in the past,” said Muncy, who has 126 career homers.
Players wondered how the new balls might affect other aspects of the game as well.
Muncy said he noticed more breakup pitches from opponents who had an unusual break on the way to home plate. The balls even moved differently when fed into the team’s pitchers during hitting drills.
“The most important thing to me with baseball is how it reacts to pitchers’ hands,” Muncy said. “A lot of breaking balls are backing up this year. That’s how it’s going to be unfortunately. This is the ball they released this year, so we have to adapt to it.
The players started express concerns about changes made to the ball before the start of the seasonuntrustworthy of MLB after its continued tinkering with the ball in recent years – last year the league used two different balls over the course of the season – and wary of the new changes they had noticed during spring training.
Roberts said he thinks balls will start flying better once the weather warms up and players eventually recalibrate their home plate feel.
Although he also hinted that it might be up to the players to hit more lines, he said he and the coaches did not change their instructions to the team based on the new balls.
“Our guys don’t make excuses, which I appreciate,” he said.
Nevertheless, another year of change is already taking its toll.
When asked if the situation was frustrating for him and the other players, Muncy smiled wryly.
“Baseball is a frustrating sport,” he said.
Once again, live baseballs added to the challenge.
