A day after Clayton Kershaw spoke up about the problems MLB has created with its deadened baseball, Don Mattingly gave his two cents as well.
Both agreed — the game is facing a problem with this season’s rash of no-hitters.
“It’s great for your team when a guy throws a no-no, it’s great for that guy, it’s a great accomplishment,” the Marlins manager told reporters on Thursday. “But, when there’s so many, so early, strikeouts are at an all-time high, things like that. It tells you that there are some issues in the game that need to be addressed.”
Already, there have been six no-nos, one short of the single-season record. There were no-hitters on consecutive days this week, as Corey Kluber of the Yankees threw one on Wednesday, the day after the Tigers’ Spencer Turnball authored his own. Strikeouts are up and offense is down.
“Now we’re at a point where it’s getting so much attention because it’s just a game that sometimes is unwatchable,” Mattingly, the former Yankees great, said. “Guys you talk to, they don’t even like watching games because there’s nothing that goes on in them.”