LOS ANGELES >> Grant Dayton, the Dodgers’ lefty reliever, got a nice harmless popup the other night from the Mets’ Michael Conforto.
Or so he thought.
He turned and watched the ball refuse to descend, like so many in 2017. For a second, Dayton was beginning to wonder if gravity itself had been hacked. The ball relented and fell to Chris Taylor, but all pitchers know that all the skies are unfriendly.
Going into Friday night, teams were averaging 1.28 home runs per game, a significant spike over 1.15 in 2016. That was third-most in baseball history, behind 1.