No-hitter frenzy rolls on as Kluber is latest to join pitching party

Sometimes, the simplest explanation is the valid one: The number of hits per game in the major leagues has plummeted, so no-hitters are on the rise.

Even so, this season has been a bit extreme.

Yankees right-hander Corey Kluber pitched the majors’ sixth no-hitter Wednesday against the Rangers, just a night after Spencer Turnbull’s gem, and 2021 is on pace to obliterate the modern record of seven no-hitters in a season. Cleveland, Seattle and Texas have already been nohit twice, and of the 21 complete games that have been pitched this season, more than a quarter of them have been no-hitters.

“It’s definitely getting harder to hit. The pitchers are only getting better and I think their plan of attack against hitters are getting better,” Oakland A’s third baseman Matt Chapman said Wednesday. “The shifts play a big part in that as well. It seems like there’s not many hits out there. The way guys pitch, there’s a lot of power arms and guys have high spin rates and they don’t leave the ball over the middle of

plate very often.”

Of the six pitchers who have thrown one, only three have been All-Stars — Kluber three times, John Means in 2019 and Wade Miley back in 2012. It’s enough to make these no-hitters feel almost ... routine?

“I think it’s still really hard,” said Texas manager Chris Woodward, who was on the losing end when Joe Musgrove threw the first no-hitter in San Diego Padres history last month then again Wednesday. “It’s one of the hardest things to do in sports. Any time it’s happening, any game I’m watching ... if a guy has a no-hitter through four, I’m always kind of like intrigued.”

Kluber (4-2) struck out 10 and and threw 71 of 101 pitches for strikes in his ninth start for the Yankees. He was pitching on the mound when he was hurt after one inning last season for the Rangers.

Right fielder Tyler Wade made a running catch of pinch-hitter David Dahl’s flyball for the second out in the ninth inning before Willie Calhoun’s game-ending groundout to second baseman DJ LeMahieu.

It was the 12th no-hitter in Yankees history, the first since David Cone’s perfect game against Montreal on July 18, 1999. It was the fifth against the Rangers, who were also at home April 9 when San Diego native Joe Musgrove threw the first nohitter in Padres history.

It’s hard to separate all these no-hitters from the context of what baseball looks like in 2021. Entering Wednesday, the average game included 7.83 hits per team. Only one season has ended with a lower figure, according to SportRadar. That was 1908, during the dead ball era. The other seasons when hits were the scarcest were 1968 — the famous “Year of the Pitcher” — and two more dead ball seasons, 1909 and 1907.

Remarkably, there wasn’t a single no-hitter in 1909 and only two in 1907. But there were six in 1908 and five in 1968.

The highest hits per game average since 1900 was in 1930, when it was 10.37 per team. Next up were 1925, 1921, 1936 and 1929. Not surprisingly, there were only two no-hitters combined in those five seasons.

“My instincts tell me the pitching is getting better,” said Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell, whose team produced one of this year’s no-hitters when Miley threw his May 7. “The hitting is too, but I do think that the way the arms are, the velocity the pitchers are throwing, the ability to spin the ball incredibly well, it’s just a tough combination. And you get a guy on a good night when he’s locked in, the scouting reports have gotten more exact, and it can make for a tough night.”

One of the more unusual stretches for no-hitters came between 1988 and 1992. During that stretch, the hits per game numbers stayed between 8.62 and 8.75 every season, but the number of no-hitters varied widely. There was one in 1988, followed by zero in 1989, then seven each in 1990 and 1991. Then it was back to just one in 1992.

From 2002-2006, there were only five no-hitters. In that 2006 season, teams averaged 9.28 hits per game. That number has steadily decreased since then, and nohitters have been more common. There were seven each in 2012 and 2015.

“Over the last few years, everybody’s trying to hit homers,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “And if you hit homers you’re going to foul back pitches, you’re going to swing and miss on balls, there’s very little bunting going on for hits. The unorthodox defenses take away a lot of hits up the middle.”