The Diamondbacks + a humidor = 38% fewer home runs - MLB

We heard a couple of weeks ago that the Diamondbacks are looking for ways to cut down on offense in Chase Field. Among their ideas was installing a Coors Field-style humidor. If they do that, however, they had best be careful because people who know more than I do about such things think doing so could turn the joint into the Astrodome, Part Deux.

The upshot, according to a physics professor you don’t know named Alan Nathan and a hit tracker you probably know named Greg Rybarczyk, is that humidified balls hit in the air would lose 2.5 m.p.h. off the bat, 14 feet in flight and would result in a 38% decrease in home runs. That’s some serious offensive depression.

No word if the Dbacks have looked into simply getting better pitching.

CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”