Keuchel after wild Game 2: Baseballs are 'juiced, 100 percent'
The dust had barely settled after a wild Game 2 of the World Series when Houston Astros ace Dallas Keuchel decided to stir it up all over again.
Keuchel watched from the dugout as the Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers combined to hit a World Series record eight homers during Wednesday's Game 2, which ended in a 7-6 Astros victory. After seeing an abundance of long balls at Dodger Stadium during the first two games of the series, the former Cy Young winner didn't mince words in his belief that something fishy is going on.
"I think the balls are juiced, 100 percent," Keuchel said, according to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. "Major League Baseball wants to put on a show."
Speculation about baseballs being juiced or changed in some manner has run rampant around the sport for much of the 2017 season. Chatter about the subject began in June, when the issue of blisters rose to the surface of the MLB and many pitchers took notice.
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Home runs have also spiked as a whole, with a record 6,105 regular-season long balls being hit across the league this year - shattering the previous single-season mark by over 400.
Commissioner Rob Manfred has already stepped in front of speculation regarding juiced baseballs. Manfred reportedly sent a memo to all 30 teams in July that apparently tried to dispel the notion of changes being made to the baseballs used at the major-league level.
Clearly, the alleged memo sent by MLB wasn't enough to dissuade Keuchel - who allowed a pair of Dodger homers during his Game 1 start - of his belief that something's up.
"That's what Major League Baseball wants," Keuchel said of the home run surge, per USA Today's Bob Nightengale. "They want that exciting two home run lead, and then they (the Dodgers) come back and hit another home run, and everybody's still watching. That's what they want. That's what they're getting.
"But it is what it is. I'm just glad we came out on top."