It’s being called “The Year of the Pitcher.”
Pitchers are dominating in the major leagues this season, and they’re having an effect on the record book as well.
Already, there are five no-hitters in baseball this year, two shy of the record reached in 1990 and ’91. Ubaldo Jimenez, Matt Garza and Edwin Jackson have each tossed a no-no. The other two, by ex-Jay Roy Halladay and Oakland’s Dallas Braden, were perfect games. There would have been a record three perfect games this season had it not been for an umpire’s blown call in Detroit earlier this season that robbed Armando Gallaraga of perfection.
Morrow’s 17-strikeout masterpiece marked the fourth time this season a pitcher has taken a no-hitter into the ninth (two of those — Morrow’s and Gallaraga’s in Detroit — were lost with two out in the ninth).
Four no-hitters lost in the ninth is not a record — baseball saw eight of them broken in the ninth in 1988 — but the number of strikeouts being tallied these days certainly suggests pitchers are on their game and hitters are still catching up.
Consider the number of combined (both teams) strikeouts per game in the sport at the moment. As of Monday, teams were combining for 13.9 strikeouts.
That number puts the sport on pace for an all-time record in combined strikeouts per game. And if that isn’t enough to suggest pitching is dominating the game, that number has been going up steadily since 2005.
“We as hitters live on mistakes by pitchers, but if (pitchers) are making well executed pitches like they seem to be, then it’s tough to deal with,” Jays centre fielder Vernon Wells said.
“If guys are hitting their spots, then it’s going to be tougher for hitters, no question.”
Wells, like several other stars in the game, agreed the game is seeing an influx of excellent young pitchers who can handle major league hitting from their very first start.
Take Morrow, for instance. Drafted in the first round, fifth overall, by Seattle in 2006, he made his first start in the majors Sept. 5, 2008 and pitched 7.2 innings of no-hit ball against the Yankees.
Afterwards, he bounced between the pen and the starting rotation, and the Mariners — despite his 98 m.p.h. stuff — felt he wouldn’t reach the consistency needed to survive as a big league starter.
Prior to Sunday’s performance, Morrow was 9-9 as a starter with a 4.46 ERA in 37 outings.
Turn the page to his arrival with the Jays this season and Morrow, 9-6 in Toronto, has not allowed a hit through five innings in five of those 37 career starts. Cliff Lee, considered the best pitcher in the American League at the moment, has only four such starts in nine major league seasons.
Baseball experts note several factors in pitching superiority, including the emergence of young pitchers like Morrow who master control over three or four pitches early in their careers. There’s also a renaissance in the sport on defence (Seattle, for instance, won 24 more games in 2009 than 2008 because, in part, they gave up 114 fewer runs); and the crackdown on performance-enhancing drugs to deter power hitters.
Pitchers are also equipped with far more statistical knowledge than their predecessors.
“I can see that . . . we as players kind of listen in on pre-series meetings, and both catchers get together with the starter and try and attack everyone’s weaknesses as hitters,” said Wells.
Indeed, computerized hitting reports and video now centre on as many as 16 hitting zones that can be attacked or exploited.
“The game has really come along in the video department . . . everyone does video now, pitchers and hitters, everyone’s looking for an advantage,” Wells said.
Ultimately, as Wells added, good pitching will beat good hitting every time. And it’s showing itself in the record book.
- msaks@ectts.com
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- msaks@ectts.com
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msaks@ectts.com -
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specialized hauling
msaks@ectts.com - specialized hauling
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