Astros, Dodgers convinced World Series balls are 'slicker'

Even the World Series can't escape the neverending saga regarding the makeup of baseballs.

According to Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, multiple players and coaches on both the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers are absolutely convinced the baseballs used in the Fall Classic have been much different than the already controversial baseballs used during the regular season.

Astros ace Justin Verlander attests the more slippery surface has made it difficult to throw a proper slider.

"The World Series ball is slicker," Verlander told Verducci. "No doubt. I'm telling you, we're in here signing (World Series) balls before the game, and it's hard to get the ink on the ball sometimes. You know when you sign a receipt at Starbucks, and if you don't hold the paper down with your hand, the pen just slides across the paper and the ink doesn't stick to it? That's what it's like sometimes trying to sign these balls. That's how slick the leather is.

"It's different. I noticed it especially throwing a slider. It didn't feel the same. The home run I gave up to (Joc) Pederson was a slider."

Dodgers starter Yu Darvish, who allowed four runs on six hits in his shortest career start in Game 3 (1 2/3 innings), corroborated Verlander's exact claim.

"I had trouble with the ball throwing a slider," he told Verducci. "It was slicker."

According to Brooks Baseball, Darvish has relied on his slider as his put-out pitch all season. On two-strike counts, the 31-year-old has thrown the slider 36 percent of the time to right-handed hitters, while left-handed hitters see the pitch 33 percent of the time - one percent higher than his four seamer in both scenarios.

The stir surrounding the alleged slicker surface is now the second time the baseballs have been called into question in the Fall Classic. Following Game 2's record-setting eight-home-run affair, Astros hurler Dallas Keuchel was adamant the balls were juiced. His suspicions were immediately shut down by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, however, who said the balls were within "established specifications."