Every year the Seattle Mariners fly more miles than any Major League Baseball team. Seattle is the furthest away from other Major League Baseball cities. Flying to the Pacific Northwest, where the Mariners play, requires the most miles and the longest flights.
According to stadiumwiz.com, Coors Field, where the Colorado Rockies play, is the park closest to Safeco Field, the home of the well traveled Mariners. Coors Field is 677 miles from Safeco Field.
Additionally, the American League West, the division where the Mariners play, is the division where teams are most spread out from each other. The American League West features teams in Washington state, California and Texas. So, even when playing division games, the Mariners must fly many miles.
According to stadiumwiz.com, the Mariners must travel 40,815 miles this season. The Oakland A's, Los Angeles Angels, Houston Astros and the San Diego Padraes travel the next most amount of miles.
The Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Detroit Tigers and the Cincinnati Reds travel the least amount of miles. Although the Reds travel the least amount of miles, they are in last place in their division. In contrast, the Mariners are in playoff contention.
Nevertheless, jet lag is an issue for athletes. Since the Mariners travel the greatest amount of miles, they are more susceptible to jet lag, which could effect an athlete's performance.
Rachael Lallensack, of sciencemag.org, says that "Jet lag is known for its fatigue- inducing effects, most of which stem from a mismatch between a person's internal clock and the time zone he or she is in, something called 'circadian mismanagement.' This misalignment is especially strong when a person's day is shorter than it should be - which happens when people travel East - previous research has shown." So, when the Mariners and other western teams travel East, they may get fatigued ,which could put them at a disadvantage. Lallensack emphasized that a new study shows that pitching and base running may be the most effected by the fatigue.
Lallensack points out that Ravi Allada, a neurobiologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, examined 10 years of baseball statistics from 1992 to 2011. The study showed that teams that traveled East for a new series had worse offensive and defensive stats than the team that was already there and did not have to play right after arriving East.
Lallensack says that even home teams that travelled back East sometimes played differently. She says "Home teams played less aggressive offense after traveling, especially if they had just traveled East. In such games, players were less likely to attempt doubles, triples and stolen bases, all of which require bolder base running." Perhaps, the fatigue from traveling East effected a team's approach and their assertiveness on the basepaths.
In an interview with Fox32 News, Allada says "What we found were jet lagged pitchers gave up more home runs and this effect was large enough to essentially erase any home field advantage that a pitcher might have." So, after returning home, a team's starting pitcher did not necessarily have a home field advantage.
In order to counteract this problem, Allada suggests that "a pitcher could be sent out early to the destination of where they're going to pitch their next game. That allows their internal clocks to adjust to the new time zone and hopefully mitigate the effects of jet lag." This is one way for a starting pitcher to counteract jet lag and fatigue.
Allada references the 2016 National League Championship Series to support the findings of their study. Allada points out that Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw shut out the Cubs in Los Angeles in game 2. However, in game 6, after returning to Chicago from Los Angeles where game 5 was played, Kershaw gave up 2 home runs and was not effective. Allada says "This is sort of what our research would have predicted." Allada does not totally attribute Kershaw's ineffectiveness in game 6 to fatigue and jet lag, but believes it could have been a "contributing factor." This may be an example that supports Allada's findings.
Allada points out that the Dodgers "could have sent Kershaw to Chicago earlier so he could adjust his clock and get ready for that game." Perhaps, the Dodgers and other Major League Baseball teams will consider doing this in the future.
Allada believes that baseball teams are aware of the effect of jet lag on a team's performance. He hopes that his research will encourage teams to try to offset potential jet lag and travel related fatigue in the future.
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