Globe Life Field yields three NLDS homers. One that didn’t leave has Dodgers in control
Two years into their romance with analytics, the Texas Rangers used all the high-tech baseball equipment at their disposal to determine that, yes, baseballs travel further when the roof is open at Globe Life Field.
Opponents rattled off four straight double-digit run totals with the roof open, but the Rangers kept a foe under 10 in the lone open-air game started by ace Lance Lynn.
Maybe, just maybe, it was the Rangers’ pitching staff, owners of a 5.02 ERA, that allowed balls to travel more with the roof open.
Hmmm.
Alas, it appears the first two games of the National League Division Series have indicated that home runs are hit less frequently in open-air games against playoff-caliber pitching.
Not one was hit Tuesday in Game 1, before the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres connected for three Wednesday.
But the long drive that Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger, and maybe the ballpark, kept from being a homer is what decided Game 2.
Bellinger leaped to rob Fernando Tatis Jr. of a two-run go-ahead homer in the seventh inning, and the Dodgers had to hang on late for a 6-5 victory.
“It’s going to take a while to wind down from that one,” Bellinger said. “That’s postseason baseball right there.”
Los Angeles has a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 series, which continues here Thursday. The winner will remain in the NL bubble to await the beginning of the NL Championship Series against the winner of the Atlanta Braves-Miami Marlins NLDS in Houston.
The Braves lead that series 2-0.
Bellinger hit one of the three homers, a solo shot in the fourth that staked Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw to a 4-1 lead. But the Dallas native surrendered back-to-back homers to Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer to start the sixth, and the Dodgers were leading 4-3 with two outs in the seventh when Tatis came to the plate.
He was facing Brudsar Graterol, the hardest thrower in baseball, and pounded a 99-mph fastball to straightaway center field.
Tatis thought he got enough of it. Off the bat, it looked like a no-doubter. It would have been at Globe Life Park.
Bellinger went back to make a play anyway.
“I knew he hit it, so in my head I was like, ‘All right, that’s gone off the black screen or I’m going to get to the wall and maybe have a chance to catch it,’” Bellinger said. “I got to the fence and saw that it was probable, so I decided to try to time up the jump.”
Bellinger believes the ball travels more with the roof open. He hit two home runs in the three-game series the Dodgers play here against the Rangers to end August, and the roof was closed.
Roberts said that he had heard the ball travels more with the roof open, but isn’t so sure after two games.
“Manny hit a ball that was really hit, the Tatis ball was really hit that Cody took away, the Hosmer ball was really hit,” Roberts said. “If you hit them, they’re going to go, but I still think it plays big.”
The Dodgers scored two in the seventh and were up 6-3 in the ninth, but the Padres rallied. Former Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland delivered the first run with a pinch-hit double and later scored on a single by Richand High graduate Trent Grisham to make it a one-run game.
Joe Kelly then walked Tatis and Machado, but Hosmer bounced out to second base end it.
Bellinger’s play loomed even larger.
“I knew I caught that one,” he said. “It was a big catch, and I’m just glad that I came up with it.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 12:15 AM.
