"Pitching" is the name of the game

Last night, Edwing Jackson took the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks and threw a no hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays, that was the 4th no hitter this season, 2 of them were perfect games, plus Galarragas one, if you one to count it.









I've been paying real attention to the MLB action since 1996 when I was 9 years old, althought I was even younger when I started to watch some games with my dad, who has always been a complete baseball fan, and happens to know a lot abot the game; However I 've followed Venezuelan Baseball many years before for my parents took me the first time to the baseball park in Valencia when I was like 1 month old to watch Magallanes play, I'm Venezuelan for those who don't know.
 





I'm saying all this because in all the years I've been following the MLB I don't remember any season in which the pitchers have been as dominant as they are in this one, I know there have been seasons like this before but I did not see those.
In the 90's the pitchers were pretty dominant, and we were admired to watch hitters like Tony Gwynn win several batting titles with very high BA. The home run leaders were always at 40 or 45 homers per season, with some exceptions like Ken Griffey Jr. who was accuratelly called "The Natural" for he had some 50 HR seasons, a guy who for sure will be in Cooperstown in 5 years.
In 1998 Mark McGwire hit 70 long balls, and Sammy Sosa hit 66, but we all know the history behind them (steroids and cork bat).
Later when the year 2000 arrived we started to see big eruption of power hitters, but those hitters weren't like Andres Galarraga, Ken Griffey Jr, Vladimir Gerrero, Cal Ripken Jr, David Justice, Paul O'neill, Vinny Castilla, Dante Bichette, Gregg Vaughn.



(Tonny Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. Two of the best hitters in the history of the game, no steroids at all)

Those were hitters that improved their power and skills by using steroids.

That was the time when the batters-over-pitchers age started
.
From 2000 on y saw Barry Bonds do the same thing as McGwire, and we knew about an important amount of players that were using or had used steroids, of course some pitchers have used this kind of substances too, but the quantity is almost insignificant when we compare them to the position players, the most in-famous
case of a pitcher on steroids was Roger Clemens.

 in the late 00's the doping tests have gotten better in MLB, that is why last year we did not see so many batters hit 50 home runs, and that's also why we have seen very dominant pitchers this year.But let us be clear, we can't say that the only reason why pitchers are better is because of the lack os steroids in the hitters system, it is also because of the pitchers have been working better, and because of the technology as Armando Galarraga sayd when he was asked about this subject.
This season there have been other pitchers that have gone far in games throwing no-no's like Ted Lilly with the Cubs agains the White Sox, who lost it in the 9th inning, and CC Sabathia with the Yankees who lost it in th 8th against the Rays a few months ago.
If you ask me, I like Home Runs and games with some runs, but it's also very good to watch pitching yewels like we've had this year with perfection and command.
you can have  ateam full of power hitters, with high battin averages, but if u have not a good pitching staff, u won't go anywhere good, you can score 10 runs in a game, but if your pitchers allows 11, you will loss the game, that is why pitching is the name of the game.


 (Mariano Rivera's 4seam fastball)