A-Rod‘s baseball talents clearly didn’t rub off on his ex — Jennifer Lopez came up to bat, with Ben Affleck and daughter Emme watching, and struck out. Frequently.

The couple took J-Lo’s 14-year-old daughter to the cages Tuesday in L.A. … while Emme stepped in for some swings, Ben and Jen were doing some PDA in the background.

Eventually, it was Mom’s turn to step up, but it didn’t go smoothly. First of all, Jen tried swinging while still rocking her purse. Not to worry … Ben held it while she got back in the box.

Made absolutely no difference, though … still a whole lot of striking out. Gotta admit, though — no one’s ever looked this good, while looking so bad at a sport.

Ben and Jen are in escrow for a massive estate as of a few weeks ago — putting around $55 million down for the compound! Ben, days after entering escrow, was longingly looking at Jen during her acceptance speech at this year’s iHeart Music Awards, likely excited for their future.