HOUSTON — Astros pitcher Justin Verlander rushed off a dais inside Minute Maid Park on Sunday afternoon with the foot speed of a cat who’d just swallowed a canary. His press conference was over, but his best quote was yet to come.

“Whoa ho ho, he’s not going to like those answers,” Verlander said as he ducked out a side door and into the hallway leading to his clubhouse.

Verlander, who will start Game 6 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, was referring to baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. In the midst of a World Series that needed only five games to set an all-time record for home runs, Verlander was asked if the most powerful people in the sport longed for an uptick in offense.

“Yeah,” he said. “I think it’s pretty clear.”

Verlander vaguely referenced some public comments Manfred made early in his tenure, in 2015. Maybe he was thinking about Manfred’s first spring training press conference, in which the commissioner referred to an extant decline in offense as a “problem” that needed correcting.

Two and a half years later, offense is no longer a problem. The home-run rate has only risen since the end of the 2017 regular season, in which a record 6,105 home runs were hit.

This week the focus has shifted to the surface of the baseballs. Pitchers from both the Dodgers and the Astros spoke openly to SportsIllustrated.com about a slicker surface affecting their ability to do their jobs. Verlander reiterated that thought Sunday.

“I think the main complaint is that the balls seem a little bit different in the postseason, and even from the postseason to the World Series balls,” he said. “They’re a little slick. You just deal with it. But I don’t think it’s the case of one pitcher saying, hey, something is different here. I think as a whole everybody is saying, whoa, something is a little off here.”

But why? Could a slicker surface be just another unintentional consequence of a hand-crafted baseball (Manfred’s explanation for the ball’s role in the home run surge) or an intentional conspiracy to boost offense?

There are conspiracy theorists around the Dodgers locker room who believe the ball has been different since the start of the postseason – especially in the World Series – because MLB wants more offense in its marquee event.

“There’s something funny with it,” said Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who threw out two baseballs in the 10th inning of Game 5 because they were too slick. “This is my eighth season in the big leagues. I have my thoughts. I’ll keep ’em to myself.”

Verlander will oppose Rich Hill in Game 6 at Dodger Stadium. Earlier this year Hill spoke openly about a possible juiced-ball conspiracy. At the time he was recovering from blister issues that he traced to a change in the baseball’s seams. Hill said he never had blisters on his pitching hand before the 2016 season, around the time when offense surged and baseballs were tested to conclude that allowable variations in manufacturing could result in livelier balls – and in turn more home runs.

Sunday, Hill said he hadn’t noticed any difference in the baseballs since the postseason began. He suggested the climate could be responsible for changes in the surface slickness.

“If it’s colder it’s going to be slicker,” Hill said. “If it’s a little bit warmer out or humid, I think you’re going to find that you’re going to have a little bit more of moisture to the baseballs.”

KAPLER LEAVES FOR PHILADELPHIA

The Philadelphia Phillies officially hired Dodgers farm director Gabe Kapler to fill their managerial vacancy.

Kapler, 42, has never managed at the major league level and has only one year of experience managing in the minors. He was the runner-up to Dave Roberts when the Dodgers replaced Don Mattingly in 2015.

“I’m obviously very excited for Gabe,” Roberts said. “He’ll do a good job with that young group of players, a very talented group. The farm system, the culture he’s instilled, the teaching – he and his staff really impacted the group that’s with us now.”

The Dodgers have lost their top two player development officials since the end of the regular season. The Minnesota Twins tabbed Jeremy Zoll, Kapler’s top assistant, to helm their player development department earlier this month.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The temperature at first pitch in Game 1 of the World Series was a record 103 degrees. For Game 2, Dodger Stadium cooled to a mere 93.

The correlation between high temperatures and a lively baseball – Game 2 featured eight home runs alone – defies coincidence.

However, the forecast for Games 6 and 7 calls for overcast skies. Temperatures are not expected to exceed 70 degrees. For that reason, Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said, “It might be a different ballgame than you’ve seen in the first five games.”

ALSO

National viewership for Game 5 of the World Series outpaced Game 4, according to Fox. In the Los Angeles market, it was the most-watched baseball game since Game 7 of the 2002 World Series, in which the Angels clinched their only championship. … Joc Pederson will be in the lineup for Game 6, Roberts said. Pederson has one hit in all four World Series games he’s started, with two doubles and two home runs in 11 at-bats. He hit a game-tying solo home run against Justin Verlander in Game 2. … Roberts said left-hander Alex Wood, who pitched 5⅔ innings in Game 4 on Saturday, will be available out of the bullpen for Game 6.