As you may have heard, home runs are flying out of ballparks across the land this season at a record clip. The all-time MLB team mark for home runs in a season was set last year by the Yankees, who hit 267. If batters keep whacking dingers at the same pace over the next six weeks, four teams will break that record. Unsurprisingly, all four of those teams — the Yankees, Dodgers, Astros and Twins — boast at least a 98 percent chance of making the playoffs this October.



The baseballs are so broken that I could hit one out this year, but this isn’t a story about that. Back in July, I was flipping through channels aimlessly and settled on a White Sox vs. Tigers doubleheader because I was curious to watch the pace of play between two awful teams. What struck me immediately was how many baseballs every pitcher required to get through an inning, even when things were going well. And it wasn’t just because of the seven home runs hit that day.



According...