Loftus: When will the ‘Year of the Pitcher’ end?
From Stephen Loftus at Beyond the Box Score on June 27, 2013:
The first two weeks of June 2012 are highly emblematic of the past few years in baseball. On June 1st, Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in New York Mets history, shutting down the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-0, in 134 pitches. Seven days later, the weak-hitting Seattle Mariners managed a six-man combined no-hitter over the Los Angeles Dodgers (winning of course by the barest of margins, 1-0). Finally, five days after that, Matt Cain topped it off by throwing the second perfect game of the season, dominating the hapless Astros for the second-highest Game Score in history with 101.
We’ve seen a lot of great pitching recently in the majors. Over the last five years, we’ve seen 18 no-hitters, with six perfect games amongst those. It has been clear that as the steroid era waned, a new era of the pitcher dawned.
However, this era will not live forever. Baseball is, after all, a cyclical game. When the era comes to an end is decidedly up for some debate. However, looking back at baseball’s past cycles might give us an idea when offense will rise again.
Read the full article here: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/6/27/4463128/year-of-the-pitcher-steroid-era-run-environment-baseball-cycles
Originally published: June 27, 2013. Last Updated: June 27, 2013.