LOS ANGELES — On Sunday afternoon, talk of slicker baseballs — more hitter-friendly baseballs, ultimately — dominated the World Series.
Then the Astros and Dodgers went out and combined to hit seven home runs in a bonkers, 13-12, 10-inning, Game 5 victory by the Astros at Minute Maid Park. The two clubs have teamed for 22 homers — already a Fall Classic record, with at least one and possibly two games to go.
What in the name of horsehide is going on here?
The existence or degree of the conspiracy depends on whom you believe. Nevertheless, the chief culprit in this ongoing saga is evident: Major League Baseball’s specifications for its primary product — the one the game is named after — provide such leeway that it gives everyone sufficient cover against any accusations.
This latest round of discussion emanated from the reporting of Sports Illustrated, which quoted players and coaches from both teams sharing their beef about the World Series balls, which feature a commemorative gold stamping. Astros pitching coach Brent Strom provided photo evidence to SI by holding up a regular-season ball against a World Series ball. The latter ball appears darker and, according to Astros and Dodgers folks, is considerably slicker so that it makes it difficult to throw the slider.
A slider thrown without the properly tight grip, which in turn creates the pitch’s nasty break, turns into a hanging ball on which hitters can feast. As SI noted, the Astros’ Justin Verlander, who will start Game 6 Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, threw 17 sliders in Game 2 and got only one swing and miss, easily his worst percentage of the year. The same went for the Dodgers’ Yu Darvish, who, en route to getting clobbered in Game 3, threw 14 sliders and didn’t get a swing and miss on any of them.
“All you can ask for is consistency,” Verlander said Sunday. “I think over the years, the numbers speak for themselves. I know [baseball commissioner] Mr. [Rob] Manfred said the balls haven’t changed, but I think there’s enough information out there to say that’s not true.”
Baseball set a regular-season record with a total of 6,105 home runs. Some or much of this can be attributed to other factors: the increased focus on hitters’ launch angles, the technological improvement of bats and the common-sense assumption that illegal performance-enhancing drugs still factor into all of this.
The state of the balls, however, generates the most noise. Larry Rothschild, the Yankees’ longtime pitching coach, told The Post in June that he thought the seams on the balls had been lowered and the balls therefore produced more of a bounce.
This past year, the online publication The Ringer conducted a study of baseballs, comparing a group from 2014 and the first half of 2015 to a group from the second half of 2015 and 2016. The study concluded that the more recent group exhibited more bounce, just as Rothschild said.
Peter Woodfork, MLB’s senior vice president of baseball operations, said World Series balls are tested at the time of manufacturing and are made from the same materials and to the same standards as regular-season baseballs.
“The only difference is the gold stamping on the baseballs,” he said.
As The Ringer pointed out, MLB’s range of specifications is so broad — the coefficient of restitution, which essentially measures a ball’s bounciness, can produce a Ball A that travels 49 feet farther than a Ball B — that it’s moot.
Now it’s on Verlander to figure out a way to regain his slider. MLB, never thrilled when people are talking about the balls instead of the games themselves, surely wouldn’t mind seeing some swings and misses Tuesday night.