Baseball is a chess game.
Every pitch is a move. Every move gets a team closer or further away from the goal of winning. Every game features several hundred moves, and one winner in the end.
If you break down the game into the individual moves, which would be the individual pitches, then the best move that can be made is a swing and miss for a pitcher, and a home run for a hitter.
I don’t need to write anything explaining the value of home runs. You get runs on the board with one swing, moving closer to the goal of winning.