All winter long, we heard about Major League Baseball’s pace of play problem, the result of the “three true outcomes” approach that saw more home runs, strikeouts, and walks, and fewer balls in play. We learned that the league had decided to alter the baseballs to increase drag and reduce the home run rate, in the hope of generating more action. The early evidence, however, has suggested that this plan utterly backfired, as Buster Olney tweeted on Wednesday evening that, through the first 528 games of the season, the number of strikeouts were outpacing the number of hits at a record pace.
The 2021 season might accidentally become a pitching renaissance
