The MLB home run explosion of 2016 Are juiced baseballs to blame?

Table of Content

• Has There Ever been a Walk-Off Home Run to win the World Series?
• Playoff tiebreakers
• Other types of "walk-off" wins
• List of walk-off home runs in the postseason and All-Star Game
• The MLB home run explosion of 2016: Are juiced baseballs to blame?
• Do You Have to Run All the Bases if You Hit the Winning Home Run?

Whatever is causing the spike in home runs this season, fans can enjoy the benefits.Dylan Buell/Getty ImagesNone of the other players we talked to, however, noticed anything different with the balls. Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy was adamant that they're the same. "I don't know if it's true or not, but he thinks they're winding the balls a little tighter this year," Estrada said. "It kind of makes sense, because it feels like guys are hitting home runs left and right this year." Bud Norris of the Los Angeles Angels, in 2017, to Edwin Encarnación of the Cleveland Indians, on July 25, and Steve Pearce of the Toronto Blue Jays on July 30. Norris surrendered both in the same week, and it was the second game-winning walk-off grand slam by Pearce in the same week.

The Yankees also hit the previous walk-off grand slam just one month earlier, when Josh Donaldson hit a walk-off grand slam against the Tampa Bay Rays on August 17, 2022. Although the concept of a game-ending home run is as old as baseball, the adjective "walk-off" attained widespread use only in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Would you believe that two of them came off Chris Sale, who is one of the 10 best starters in the game? If you are a baseball fan, you might hear announcers call something a walk-off home run. So what exactly is a walk-off home run-in Major-League Baseball and what does that phrase even mean? "I'm not going to throw that stone and make accusations," he said with his agitation showing.

Has There Ever been a Walk-Off Home Run to win the World Series?

While a walk-off home run means both teams walk off the field since the game ended, there is a different feeling between the two sides. One team walks away in defeat, while the other team walks off the field with joy. Francisco Rodríguez of the New York Mets, in 2009, to rookies Everth Cabrera of the San Diego Padres, on August 7, and Justin Maxwell of the Washington Nationals on September 30. Rodríguez is the only pitcher to surrender two game-winning grand slams to two rookies. What's easier, guessing that the longest homer of the season was in Coors Field, or that the shortest -- nearly 200 feet (!) shorter -- snuck its way around the Pesky Pole at Fenway Park? Clay Buchholz's 93-mph fastball up wasn't really a bad pitch, and it's not like Hardy smoked it back through the box, getting an exit velocity of just 98.2 mph at an angle of 20 degrees.

The two-year increase appears particularly dramatic because there were 4,934 home runs in 2012 and 4,661 in 2013 before a drop to 4,186 in 2014. Although 675 is a lot more home runs from one season to the next, it represents only 22.5 additional home runs per team or about four per month or one extra home run per team each week. "Guys throw harder, and I think the hitters are taking a different approach," he said. "The video out there is so in-depth. The analytics are off the charts. Guys are guessing more now, and they've been able to hone their style of hitting so much, it's affecting everybody."

Playoff tiebreakers

During a walk-off celebration on May 29, 2010, Kendrys Morales, then a member of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, broke his left leg while celebrating a walk-off grand slam. As a result of this injury, team manager Mike Scioscia instituted new guidelines for his team that ensured a much tamer response to all subsequent walk-off victories. In the charts below, home runs that ended a postseason series are denoted by the series standing in bold. Home runs in which the winning team was trailing at the time are denoted by the final score in bold. Major League Baseball takes pride in its long history of great players and memorable moments. The walk-off home run is truly something and is even more special when it wins a postseason or World Series game.

In the end they go home disappointed, however, when Casey strikes out rather than hitting the home run the fans expect. Because it went a projected 336 feet, and the left-field line at Guaranteed Rate Field is 330 feet, getting deeper as it goes toward center. There's just about nowhere this ball could have made it out; Tulowitzki managed to find it. That's how long it took this moonscraper to come back to Earth.

Other types of "walk-off" wins

By the way, the fifth-shortest homer of the season, at 328 feet, also came off Hardy's bat ... Two of the nine dingers he hit in 2016 could have only happened where they did. Joe Sheehan wrote about the home run spike Monday and studied the impact of young hitters by tracking the home run rates for the debut classes of 2014, 2015 and 2016.

In fact, there have been two unforgettable moments that took place via a walk-off homer to win a World Series. Here are the two game-winning moments in the history of the World Series via a video. Although the term itself would not be used until over 100 years later, Casey at the Bat, an 1888 poem by Ernest Thayer, features a potential walk-off home run. Although pessimistic at first, the home team's fans become more optimistic when their star, Casey, unexpectedly gets a chance to hit a walk-off three run home run.

Put another way, our rough dividing line between "fly balls" and "popups" is 50 degrees, and this came exceptionally close to breaking that line. Dennis Eckersley came up with the phrase “walk-off home run” in 1988 via a print piece in the San Francisco Chronicle. The description of the walk-off home run signified that you lost the game, and you did not have to watch the ball sail deep in the night. Essentially, you as the pitcher have to walk off the mound and back to the dugout after losing the game. Commissioner Rob Manfred echoed that during his All-Star break news conference. He's confident, he said, that the rise in home runs isn't related to steroids or juiced baseballs.

Josh Donaldson is among those who think adapting to MLB's faster-than-ever fastballs has made a difference.Gavin Baker/Icon Sportswire"I think it goes back to this," AL MVP Josh Donaldson said. Are those few extra feet coming from the players or the balls? A common theory among players is that power pitching translates to more power.

You for months that the fastest rookie in 2016 was actually Buxton, even though he struggled in his initial callup before a scorching September. Sure, he had the fastest home-to-third time (10.69 seconds on June 3) of any righty hitter, but he also had the four fastest and six of the top 10. Among righties, he had the nine fastest home-to-second times on doubles. Astros pitchers were aware early on, reliever Will Harris said. Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada has talked about this with teammate R.A.

Believe it or not, there have been injuries after someone went to celebrate with their team after winning a game via a home run. Back on May 29, 2010, Kendrys Morales of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim broke his left leg while celebrating at home plate. While extremely rare for someone to break their leg, Kendrys Morales illustrated that you should be a bit careful when celebrating with your teammates. Many people wonder if a walk-off homer has taken place to win a World Series.

"I know in April, it was ridiculous the amount of home runs that were being hit," he said. "You saw the big innings, a lot of six-, seven-run innings and guys hitting the balls out of ballparks, so I don't know what's up. Scouting reports, advanced scouting, all that kind of stuff, I don't know. Global warming? Maybe it's a little hotter in these ballparks." Because the ball was a low line drive that just barely cleared the right-field wall near the foul pole, and it was originally unclear whether it would be ruled a homer or not. So Dietrich sat at second base for a full 32.3 seconds awaiting the ruling.