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HOUSTON – In the hours leading up to Game 5 of the World Series, a Houston Astros relief pitcher went to the team’s bullpen in right field to conduct an experiment. He dabbed a bit of super glue on his index and middle fingers, let it dry slightly and picked up one of the embattled baseballs that became a front-and-center story Sunday during the game’s biggest event.
Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci reported Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers have complained of slick balls this postseason, adding scrutiny to a vital component of the game that has been accused of fueling the massive home run spike over the last 2½ seasons. The Astros pitcher resorted to super glue to see if it could help him better grip the ball.
What happened instead was small white pieces of the ball’s leather hide flaked off and stuck to his fingers. Perhaps this was the natural result of using an adherent as strong as super glue, but it fueled paranoia even more that something is wrong with the balls being used this October.
This wasn’t the first test in the Astros’ bullpen this postseason. Lance McCullers Jr., the Astros’ Game 3 starter slated to start a potential Game 7, recently turned his back to Astros pitching coach Brent Strom, who stuck a ball into McCullers’ hand with a question: regular-season ball or playoff ball? They repeated the exercise five more times, with three blue-stamped regular-season balls and three gold-stamped playoff ones.
“I went 6 for 6,” McCullers told Yahoo Sports.
While McCullers has experienced success throughout the postseason, he disputes the league’s contention that they are the same as the regular-season version and vows his concerns with a slick ball aren’t some made-up issue.
“It’s 100 percent real,” McCullers said. “The balls are different. I don’t know what the difference is. If you write with a No. 2 pencil 10,000 times and someone gives you a pen, you’re gonna know the difference. This is our craft. This is what we do. We know. We feel the ball. Something has changed.”
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So the postseason baseball are juiced.....
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