Homerun weather
First true heat of the season could heat up Phillies, Red Sox bats.
The official high temperature in Philly hit 90 for the first time this season, and at Citizens Bank Park, it should be a splendid night for baseball -- and a potentiallly productive one for hitters who can drive the ball in the air to right.
Temperatures could stay above 80 throughout the game, and a generous 10-plus m.p.h. wind will be blowing toward rightfield, out of the southwest. In addition, the air will have a decent helping of water vapor.
The warmer and more-humid the air mass, the more-buoyant the air tends to be. That, plus a wind blowing toward the right-field stands, could be an ideal set of circumstances for the likes of Domonic Brown, and maybe even Ryan Howard.
Fortunately for Phillies' starter Kyle Kendrick, David Ortiz won't be in the Re Sox lineup, since the designated hitter isn't used in the National League parks.
Paul Dorian, meteorologist with the SI Organization Inc., responsible for the Home Run Weather app, says that for home-run hitters, tonight is as good as it gets.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most-favorable for home runs, Dorian ranks tonight's game as a 10.
SI, in Valley Forge, says this is not guess-work. The company says it considers "temperature, dew point, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction" and things such as "the drag coefficient of a baseball."
What it sees tonight is bullish on the offense.
Writes Dorian, "Perhaps there is some hope for the Phillies offense," Dorian writes.