By Ronald Blum, AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK — All the big home runs in the first week of the postseason should not be a surprise. The long ball is back.
There were 5,610 home runs during the regular season, second only behind the Steroids Era high of 5,693 in 2000.
And Mark Teixeira thinks he knows why.
“I think the balls are harder. Definitely. I can just feel it. I can hear it off the bat,” the retiring New York Yankees first baseman said.
Already in the young playoffs, Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion homered to win the AL wild-card game, San Francisco’s Conor Gillaspie had a go-ahead, ninth-inning drive in the NL game and the Cubs’ Javier Baez hit a decisive eighth-inning shot to win an NL Division Series opener.