Dodgers Players Talk About the Quirks of Playing at Globe Life Field

In the 5th inning of game 1 of the NLDS, AJ Pollock hit a ball off of Garrett Richard’s that looked like it was destined to leave the stadium. Unfortunately, Globe Life Field swallowed it up and the Dodgers and Padres remained tied, if only for a moment. 

During the postgame press conference, it became a hot topic with Dodgers players and coaches. As it turns out, there were a couple of balls hit that guys int he dugout thought should have flown out. Cody Bellinger noted that he also felt Max Muncy had gotten ahold of one. 

Yeah, it’s a big ballpark. We had some balls today that we hit pretty well, but we’re just playing baseball man. Obviously putting the ball in play is huge in any game in any situation, and we were able to do that today…I did [think Pollock’s ball was gone] I put my hands up. From the first base view, I thought he got it. I looked up and it was 95 off of the bat I think, I was surprised that it stayed in. -Cody Bellinger

For Justin Turner, he felt the same. But rather than dwell on what could have been or complain about the circumstances, JT reminded everyone that the goal is to put together good at-bats. 

They hit a couple of balls pretty good that probably at Dodger Stadium are homers. But we hit a few homers in the series here this year, so you can hit it over the fence. But it’s not about hitting homeruns. It’s about hitting balls hard and taking good at-bats, and eventually, we broke them down and found some holes. -Justin Turner

Like everyone else in the dugout, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was convinced those balls would be gone at most other stadiums. But the good news is that it plays both ways, and the Padres were not able to play the longball either.

It played big. I thought that we mixed in 10 walks but we hit some balls really well. I thought the AJ’s ball could have been a homer in a lot of different ballparks. I thought the Muncy’s ball could have been a homer in a lot of different ballparks. We hit some balls really well. So we’ll see, I guess it played fair. -Dave Roberts

Globe Life Field‘s dimensions aren’t necessarily daunting when you look at them on paper. Centerfield plays at 407 feet though, 12 feet further than Dodger Stadium. The atmosphere does play a role though, and the often humid Texas can’t help any. Regardless, both teams are going to have to find ways to manufacture runs and to move guys over.

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