The St. Louis Cardinals are now down 2-0 in the NLCS after Max Scherzer followed teammate Anibal Sanchez with another stifling pitching performance.
"But it's the baseballs" said Cards skipper Mike Shildt.
As I already said on Twitter?
Dude.
Both teams are playing with the same bag of baseballs, whether they really are a detuned batch or it's all the weather. (Mid-40s in Game 1, and around 60 during Game 2.) Your managerial counterpart, Dave Martinez, also commented on this and said, in essence, it's a matter of preparation.
So, yes, Marcell Ozuna didn't hit one out in Game 1 that he might have during the NLDS against the Braves. (And maybe he wouldn't have. Contra stats analyzers, I thought, well before that ball settled into Michael Taylor's glove, that Ozuna had gotten under it too much.) But, know what?
Howie Kendrick owned you in Game 1. The ball wasn't detuned when Adam Eaton had a triple. You couldn't get Kolten Wong home from third with small ball.
And yeah, speaking of the NLDS, on the other matchup, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he thought the balls had been detuned, too, specifically citing one non-homer by Cody Bellinger.
Dave? They weren't detuned in your Game 5 when Clayton Kershaw got rocked back to back by Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto. Or when Kendrick had his grand salami off Joe Kelly. You, like Shildt, are looking like a whiner.
Meanwhile, Justin Verlander has he can't tell the difference.
And Tommy Edman and Jose Martinez on Shildt's own team don't think it's a thing.
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Meanwhile, at Red Satan, David Schoenfield wonders if Schildt is managing his way out of the series.
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