FEWER STRIKEOUTS IN MAY

Hits exceeded strikeouts across Major

League Baseball in May after a historic number of whiffs in April.

This marks a return to form. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, there were 7,033 hits and 6,971 strikeouts in May.

Strikeouts topped hits in a month for the first time in April, when then there were 6,656 strikeouts and 6,360 hits. The previous low differential was in April 2017, when there were 138 more hits than strikeouts.

Strikeouts per game dropped to 16.75 in May from 17.5 in April. Strikeouts have set a record for 10 consecutive seasons and this year’s rate projects to 41,633. That would shatter last year’s mark of 40,104; the total was 32,884 in 2008.

There have been 1,888 home runs in 835 games, an average of 2.26. That represents a drop from 2.43 last year through May, when where there were 1,923 in 791 games.