You can justify it as baseball's reaction to the end of the steroid era. You can claim it is based on the pedigree of baseball's young stars. You can call it whatever you want, but baseball has entered an age where pitching reigns.
Baseball has always been a cyclical game. Throughout history the sport has shifted dominance, from pitching to hitting and back. As one group pulls ahead, the other fights to catch up. Sometimes they are given an advantage, such as when the pitcher's mound was created; and sometimes they take it, like when many MLB hitters looked to steroids for an edge on their competition.
In the past few seasons, we have witnessed one of these cyclical transformations—one of these historic changes in power. This has been evidenced by the great number of no-hitters and even perfect games thrown over the past four seasons.
Baseball fans have witnessed 10 no-hitters and 3 perfect games since the inception of the 2007 MLB season. The no-hitters were thrown by Mark Buehrle, Justin Verlander, Clay Buccholz, Jon Lester, Carlos Zambrano, Jonathan Sanchez and Ubaldo Jimenez. The perfect games were pitched by Mark Buehrle, one of 26 MLB pitchers to throw multiple no-hitters, Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay.
As most sports fans already know, Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers was robbed of his perfect game bid last night. He threw a flawless game and with the help of center fielder Austin Jackson was one out away from a perfect game.
Then the terrible happened. Galarraga induced a ground ball and ran over to cover first base. Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera fielded the ball cleanly and flipped it to Galarraga. He caught the ball, only to hear and see Jim Joyce signal safe. To Galarraga's credit he did not argue the call and went on to finish the game.
Instant replay and constant Sportscenter coverage have shown that Galarraga made the play at first. He beat the runner, Jason Donald of the Cleveland Indians, by a step. Joyce made the wrong call and he admits that.
We must move on. Joyce, Galarraga, and the Tigers have done the best they can to do just that. Joyce returned to work today, stationed behind the plate at the Tigers game. He was handed the Tigers lineup card by a smiling Galarraga, who had just received the keys to a new 2010 Corvette Convertible.
In the year of the pitcher, it just wasn't meant to be for Galarraga. Maybe Joyce's gaffe will get Don Denkinger off the hook for his terrible call in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series; probably not. Though Galarraga was robbed, fans have still seen three no-hitters and two perfect games this season. Considering there have been just 265 no-hitters and 20 perfect games all-time, that's something to talk about.
Feel free to email me at sandlotsabermetrics@gmail.com with fantasy questions to feature in my weekly Help Me Help You blog.
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