Torpedo-shaped bats draw attention after Yankees hit team-record 9 homers in rout of Brewers

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Torpedo-shaped bats draw attention after Yankees hit team-record 9 homers in rout of Brewers

2025-03-31 05:35 Last Updated At：05:40

NEW YORK (AP) — New torpedo bats drew attention when the New York Yankees hit a team-record nine homers that traveled a combined 3,695 feet on Saturday.

Using a strikingly different model in which wood is moved lower down the barrel after the label and shapes the end a little like a bowling pin, Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm Jr. homered in New York’s 20-9 rout of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Yankees hit four more homers in a 12-3 win Sunday and their 15 homers through the first three games matched the 2006 Detroit Tigers for the most in major league history.

“That’s just trying to be the best we can be,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday. “That’s one of the things that’s gotten pointed out. I say to you guys all the time, we’re trying to win on the margins and that shows up in so many different ways.”

MLB has relatively uncomplicated bat rules, stating under 3.02: “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.” It goes on to state there may be a cupped indentation up to 1 1/4 inches in depth, 2 inches wide and with at least a 1-inch diameter, and experimental models must be approved by MLB.

Former Yankees infielder Kevin Smith posted online Saturday that Aaron Leanhardt, a former Yankees front-office staffer who now works for the Miami Marlins, developed the torpedo barrel to bring more mass to a bat's sweet spot.

“You’re going up with a weapon that can be better,” Smith wrote. “Your just misses could be clips, your clips could be flares, and your flares could (be) barrels. And it was true, it’s fractions of an inch on the barrel differentiating these outcomes.”

Goldschmidt, batting leadoff for the first time, opened with a 413-foot homer off Nestor Cortes and Bellinger followed with a 451-foot drive that initially didn't register with Statcast. Aaron Judge, using a bat with a conventional shape, hit a 468-foot shot that made the Yankees the first team to homer on each of a game's first three pitches since MLB's records began in 1988.

Bellinger first was presented with the torpedo-shape concept in a batting practice session last season with the Chicago Cubs but did not use it in a game. He was given a more advanced version during spring training this year.

“I started swinging this one in spring or before spring, kind of early on, and I was like, ‘Oh it feels good,’” Bellinger said. “It was an ounce lighter than the one I was swinging, but I think the way the weight was distributed felt really good."

Bellinger, the 2019 NL MVP with the Los Angeles Dodgers, switched from a maple Louisville Slugger to a birch bat and cited MLB's 2010 rule change narrowing the maximum diameter from 2.75 inches.

“I’m usually a maple guy, but birch for me allows me to get the bigger barrel because I wasn’t grandfathered in,” Bellinger said. “So it’s all within regulation. They made sure that before the season even started, knowing that I imagine at some point the way these bats look that it’s probably going to get out at some point."

Volpe, who homered for the second straight game Saturday, began using the torpedo in spring training.

“The concept makes so much sense. I know I’m bought in,” Volpe said. “The bigger you can have the barrel where you hit the ball, it makes sense to me.”

Chisholm homered twice Sunday, hitting behind Judge for the second straight day. He said he started using the torpedo bat after hitting a double and a homer in spring training with Volpe's bat.

“I love my bat,” Chisholm said with a slight laugh. “I think you can tell. It doesn't feel like a different bat. It just helps you in a real way I guess.”

Judge, who hit an AL-record 62 homers in 2022 and 58 last year en route to his second AL MVP award, didn't see a reason to experiment.

“The past couple of seasons kind of speak for itself,” Judge said a day after his third career three-homer game. “Why try to change something?”

Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said he knows a little about developing and bat designs from serving on the boards of two bat companies.

“Players are doing everything to try to get an edge today legally and I think they should,” Murphy said. “I think whatever is good for the offensive game is good for the game.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Trump and Netanyahu hold White House talks on tariffs, the war in Gaza and more

2025-04-08 02:29 Last Updated At：02:32

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, becoming the first foreign leader to visit Trump since he unleashed tariffs on countries around the world.

Whether Netanyahu’s visit succeeds in bringing down or eliminating Israel’s tariffs remains to be seen, but how it plays out could set the stage for how other world leaders try to address the new tariffs.

Trump greeted the Israeli prime minister with a firm handshake as he arrived for talks.

Trump ignored shouted questions from reporters about the tumbling global markets and whether he would lift tariffs on Israel.

Shortly before their meeting, the White House announced that Trump and Netanyahu's plans to hold a joint news conference had been canceled. The White House did not offer any immediate explanation for why it was scrapped, but Trump and Netanyahu were expected to make comments to reporters at the start of their scheduled Oval Office meeting.

Netanyahu’s office has put the focus of his hastily organized Washington visit on the tariffs, while stressing that the two leaders will discuss major geopolitical issues including the war in Gaza, tensions with Iran, Israel-Turkey ties and the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli leader last year. Trump in February signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC over its investigations of Israel.

Ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump held a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. All three leaders have been key interlocutors in efforts to tamp down tensions in the Middle East and bring an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

The engagement was organized by Macron, according to a French government official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The prime minister soon after arriving in Washington on Sunday evening met with senior Trump administration officials, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer, to discuss the tariffs. And Netanyahu met on Monday with Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, ahead of his sit down with the president.

Trump and Netanyahu are also expected to discuss Israel’s hoped-for annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, which the Palestinians want as the heart of their future independent state.

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations, said he expected Trump to use the tariffs as leverage to force concessions from Netanyahu.

In Israel’s case, those concessions might not be economic. Trump may pressure Netanyahu to move toward ending the war in Gaza — at the very least through some interim truce with Hamas that would pause the fighting and free more hostages.

Gilboa said Trump is hoping to return from his first overseas trip — expected next month to Saudi Arabia — with some movement on a deal to normalize relations with Israel, which would likely require significant Israeli concessions on Gaza.

If he does manage to move toward bolstering ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, that would act as a regional diplomatic counterweight to pressure Iran, against which Trump has threatened new sanctions and suggested military action over its nuclear program.

In a preemptive move last week, Israel announced that it was removing all tariffs on goods from the U.S., mostly on imported food and agricultural products, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

The statement did not mention Trump’s impending tariffs, which were announced the following day, but said Israel’s step would bolster ties with its largest trading partner, the United States. Israel is not a major trading partner of the U.S.

But the tactic failed, and with a 17% rate, Israel was just one of dozens of countries that were slapped with tariffs on Trump’s so-called Liberation Day last week.

Although Israel is a tiny market for U.S. products, the United States is a key trade partner of Israel. Much of that trade is for high-tech services, which are not directly affected by the tariffs, but key Israeli industries could be impacted.

The Manufacturers Association of Israel estimates that the tariffs will cost Israel about $3 billion in exports each year and lead to the loss of 26,000 jobs in industries that include biotechnology, chemicals, plastics and electronics. The World Bank says Israel’s gross domestic product, a measure of economic output, is over $500 billion a year.

“The damage won’t stop at exports,” said Ron Tomer, the group’s president. “It will scare investors, encourage companies to leave Israel and undermine our image as a global center of innovation.” He called on the government to work urgently to protect the economy.

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. White House correspondent Zeke Miller contributed reporting.