CLEVELAND — When Yankees starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka grips the baseball that many major leaguers believe has been juiced to boost home run totals, he thinks how different it feels these days.

And then he goes a step farther.

“Probably the right word to say is, it just doesn’t feel right," Tanaka told NJ Advance Media via Japanese translator Shingo Horie.

Tanaka was speaking in the American League clubhouse before throwing a shutout inning in Tuesday’s 2019 MLB All-Star Game at Progressive Field, which the American League won, 4-3, over the National League.

Earlier in the day, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred defended the league from allegations that it’s doctoring baseballs to increase offense.

Astros ace Justin Verlander, a likely Hall of Famer, was the loudest and most recent critic, saying the baseball has become “an (expletive) joke” and that MLB has instructed Rawlings, which it owns, to alter the ball.

“Baseball has done nothing, given no direction, for an alteration of the baseball,” Manfred told reporters in a conference room at the Ritz Carlton hotel in downtown Cleveland.

“If we were going to do it, we would do it in a way that was transparent to the media and fans before making that change,” he added.

MLB Players Association leader Tony Clark stopped short of saying he believes the league has altered the ball on purpose, but said that, “The game has changed. The ball is different.”

Tanaka, 30, has pitched in the majors leagues for six seasons. This year, he's 5-5 with a 3.86 ERA in 18 starts.

He explained the difference.

"Feels like the ball is a little bit harder and it feels like the seams re a little bit lower,” Tanaka said.

Is the ball juiced? He wasn’t sure. “I feel like there’s room for conversation on the topic,” he said.

But Tanaka had an issue with one of Manfred’s talking points.

Manfred said that since the baseballs are handmade and with natural products, there’s going to be a natural variance from ball to ball. Tanaka said he didn’t understand why home runs have only steadily ticked upward over recent years if that was the case.

“I think that MLB is saying that the balls are being handmade, then it shouldn’t just be going up. There should be a down, also,” he said.

Tanaka’s teammate, CC Sabathia, also said Tuesday that “the laces are just harder to grip, sown in tighter.”

“Guys are hitting home runs at a crazy record pace,” Sabathia said. “We’re trying to figure out why. But I think it just goes up and down, up and down just in the game. It’s just one of those years where it’s high. But like I said, the ball does feel a little different in your hand.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.