As has already been reported in many, many places, 2010 has been known as the year of the pitcher. (You can view just some examples from ESPN, Fanhouse, and Time.) Although 1968 is known as THE year of the pitcher, because strikes zones were expanded and the mound was raised, 2010 has become the year of the return of dominant pitching.
It started early on, when Ubaldo Jimenez threw the first no-hitter on April 17. Then Dallas Braden and Doc Halladay threw perfect games within three weeks of each other in May. Edwin Jackson threw a no-hitter in June, and finally Matt Garza threw yet another no-hitter in July. In all, there have been 5 no-hitters and 23 one-hitters so far in 2010. This is actually the record for most no or one-hitters in a season, passing 1988 which had 26 no or one-hitters. So we can see that 2010 has been a year filled with dominant pitching performances.
However, another amazing thing about this season is how often there have been games where both teams have pitched extremely well. This shows up in the amount of 1-0 games we have seen this year. which has already happened 59 times this season, which is tied for the 6th most in a single season, and the most in any season since 1976.
So we can see that there have been a very high number of extraordinary pitching performances this year. We could compare different stats such as ERA or WHIP to see how 2010 stacks up compared to different years in terms of overall pitching performance, but that is not what I wanted to figure out. I just wanted this post to show that 2010 has in fact been the year of the return of dominant pitching.
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