Bats & Balls

Rich Hill lasted only three innings in today's game against the Padres. During that time, he dished up five hits and five runs.

Hill said the main problem was "just the ball was coming off the bat a little differently today."

He has a point there. When you get right down to it, the whole pitcher-batter contest is about "the ball coming off the bat."

The pitcher wants the ball to come off the bat and gently hop to one of the infielders. The batter wants the ball to come off the bat as a screaming line drive that would destroy the hand of anyone who tried to catch it.

Or the pitcher wants the batter to miss the ball altogether. In other words, in an ideal world, no batter would ever hit the ball. Instead, strike after strike would plop securely into the catcher's mitt.

In the ideal world of the batter, he would hit the ball so hard and so far that it would sail all the way across the Howard Street El and land somewhere in Lake Michigan.

Rich has given us the essential problem every pitcher has to face. It all comes down to the ball coming, or not coming, off the bat.