No-hitters are skyrocketing in MLB - and baseball has never seen anything like it
If the 2000s were the decade of home runs and performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball then the 2010s are well on their way to becoming the decade of the dominant pitchers.
On Sunday night, Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs threw a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers. If it seems like no-hitters are happening more frequently, it is because they are. This was the sixth no-hitter this season and the second against the Dodgers in a span of nine days.
MLB pitchers are now on pace to throw 47 no-hitters this decade, up from just 14 during the 2000s, according to Baseball-Reference, and on pace to be the most ever in a single decade.
However, this doesn't tell the whole story. Obviously there are a lot more teams now thanks to expansion and therefore there are a lot more opportunities to throw no-hitters.
So far this decade, MLB pitchers are throwing a no-hitter about once every 522 games. That is on par with the 1960s, an era that was so heavily in favor of the pitchers that Major League Baseball lowered the mound in 1969 because pitchers were deemed to have too much of an advantage.
Before the season, rookie commissioner Rob Manfred said he hopes the scoring drought in MLB will fix itself, as these things tend to work in cycles. But so far the pendulum is still swinging in favor of the pitchers and at some point, Manfred may need to do something to help the hitters out.