Not hitting against Snell is somewhat understandable; he did win the Cy Young last year. It’s the persistent non-hitting against the Yarboroughs of the baseball world that is the real issue.
That’s a good observation. All I’ll say is Taylor would have been better served if a couple of guys had hit the ball a little harder and given Bradley or Betts a shot at actually catching them.
OTOH, if he fields the bunt he may have gotten out of it with 1 run scoring.
Right now I’d be more worried about what they are not getting out of the likes of Betts, Benintendi, etc., i.e., the guys who are supposed to be carrying this team. Bradley’s lack of offense is a concern, but they need the other guys to get going far more.
Any pitcher on a major league roster is capable of doing what Yarborough has done today. What separates the bad from the average from the good from the great pitchers is how often they can do it. Weber threw a gem a few starts ago and has done nothing since.
The no-hit rolls are rife with the names of non-entities. And there are bunch of greats and near greats who never threw one.
I actually read an article a couple years ago that did conclude that a fastball could theoretically rise when thrown in a conventional manner; however, the combination of speed and spin rate required to overcome air drag and velocity would make it virtually impossible. They used Aroldis Chapman for an example and if IIRC, the conclusion was that if he threw at his normal 103 mph he would have to increase his spin rate something like 33% or if he kept his current spin rate he would have to increase his velocity by about 10 mph.
So I guess the only overhand pitcher to ever make a ball rise was Sidd Finch.
1929 in the AL.
But other rules took legit homers off the boards as well. A ball that hooked foul after passing the foul pole in fair territory was considered a foul ball. If a batter came up in a walk-off situation and hit an over the fence homer, he only got credit for the number of bases needed to win the game. So if the winning run was on third and a batter hit one over the fence, he got credit for a single.
There's no real way to compare the totals. Ruth hit 714 by the rules of his time. Aaron hot 755 by the rules of his time.