Home runs continue to fly at a historic rate this season, a drastic change that Justin Verlander accuses MLB brought intentionally.

Verlander, who will be the American League’s All-Star Game starter, owns a 10-4 record with a 2.98 ERA. He has also allowed the most home runs in the league, a symptom he believes is a result of the league manipulating baseballs to increase home runs.

“It’s a f—ing joke,” Verlander told ESPN Monday. “Major League Baseball’s turning this game into a joke. They own Rawlings, and you’ve got Manfred up here saying it might be the way they center the pill. They own the f—king company. If any other $40 billion company bought out a $400 million company and the product changed dramatically, it’s not a guess as to what happened. We all know what happened.

“Manfred the first time he came in, what’d he say? He said ‘We want more offense.’ All of a sudden he comes in, the balls are juiced? It’s not a coincidence. We’re not idiots.”

Controversy surrounding modified baseballs sprung up after the 2015 All-Star break, when home runs spiked. Since 2014, home runs have increased by nearly 60 percent. This season, the league is on pace to slug 1,000 more home runs than in 2000, the heart of the steroid era. Almost 45 percent of all runs scored this season have come via the long ball, marking a dramatic shift in how the game is played.

In 2018, MLB bought Rawlings, the official supplier of baseballs for the league. A month prior, the league released a study commissioned by commissioner Rob Manfred to investigate the baseballs, which concluded that while the balls were performing differently, they were not the reason for the increased home runs.

Verlander “100 percent” believes the balls were intentionally juiced by the league, citing modified baseballs often used in the Home Run Derby. That, and the league now controlling the manufacturing of the balls, makes it hard for the 36-year-old to believe it’s all just a coincidence.

Manfred acknowledged a difference in the balls, but denied any league involvement.

“We think what’s been going on this year is attributable to the baseball,” Manfred said Monday on ESPN. “Our scientists that have been now studying the baseball more regularly have told us that this year the baseball has a little less drag. It doesn’t need to change very much in order to produce meaningful change in terms of the way the game is played on the field. We are trying to understand exactly why that happened and build out a manufacturing process that gives us a little more control over what’s going on. But you have to remember that our baseball is a handmade product and there’s gonna be variation year to year.”

On Tuesday, the commissioner added to his point.

“The flaw in logic is that baseball wants more home runs,” he said. “If you sat in owners meeting and listen to people on how the game is played, that is not a sentiment of owners for whom I work. There’s no desire among ownership to increase homers in the game, to the contrary they are concerned about how many we have.”

Other than less drag, Verlander pointed to the seams as a major change in the ball – with lowered seams, pitchers have to put more pressure on the baseballs when they pitch. Verlander showed off a blister on his thumb on ESPN, which he said has only happened in 2017 and 2019.

“I hate the way I feel out there,” Verlander said. “No matter who’s the batter, I feel like I’m constantly walking a tightrope, because any batter can go opposite field. Any batter can leave with any pitch that’s anywhere in the zone. You can’t miss barrels anymore. You have to miss bats. There’s been multiple times this year where five years ago I’d probably just throw a fastball away. I can’t do that, because you’re the 8, 9-hole hitter and you still can hit an opposite-field homer.”

Other pitchers around the league, specifically CC Sabathia and Marcus Stroman, have echoed Verlander’s sentiment. Stroman claimed “it’s clear” that the balls are juiced, and that he came to terms with it. Whether or not it’s good for the game in the present, Verlander believes it changes the game at large.

“I don’t know if it’s bad or good for the game,” Verlander said. “I don’t think it’s great — that the true outcomes of strikeouts of strikeouts, homers and walks is best for the game. That’s for somebody else to decide. I talk about time a lot — how do you stack up in history? If you’re going to change something so dramatically, I think you need to make people aware.”