Professional baseball is currently experiencing an unprecedented surge of no hitters. In just the past week, Detroit Tigers pitcher Spencer Turnbull logged a no-hit performance against the Mariners on Tuesday and Corey Kluber of the New York Yankees delivered a no-hitter the following day. Overall, there have been six pitchers to throw a no hitter through the first two months of the MLB season.
Clayton Kershaw made it clear that he was not amused by this recent trend. “Well, it’s not good. I’ll tell you that. I think whatever the intention was with the new ball or whatever it may be, it really hasn’t done anything. There might be less home runs, which I guess they want, but I don’t know the stats on all that. I think I saw some stats for April that it was the worst hitting month in the history of something,” the Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher commented.
Kershaw is referring to a change made by the MLB in which they “deadened” the ball. This resulted in balls that were made slightly lighter and less bouncy. This change came as a result of an ever-increasing home run rate. This purpose has been seemingly served as home runs have decreased to 1.14 per game from 1.28 in the previous year. Offensive production as a whole has decreased sizably this season as well, with batting average and hits per game at all-time lows. Strikeouts, however, have increased to record levels, as around 24 percent of batters are striking out.
“No-hitters are cool,” said Kershaw. “I have all the respect in the world for Corey Kluber and [**Madison Bumgarner**] and all those guys that have thrown no hitters. But to have one happen every night, it seems like it’s probably not good for the game. Fans want to see some hits, I get that and some action, and not many people striking out. I appreciate the attempt that MLB has tried to do but I think it seems like they missed the mark so far. We’ll see. I don’t Know,” Kershaw, who is likely a future Hall of Fame pitcher, concluded.
