The Rangers took a 0-0 game into the tenth inning last night. They could muster only six hits, same as the Phillies.

Can’t anyone hit anymore?

Looking at the roster, Corey Seager is hitting .253. Marcus Semien, .179. Mitch Garver, .189. Adolis Garcia, .200. Andy Ibañez, .258. Nick Solak, .220.

If you’re wondering what ever happened to that supposedly high-powered Rangers offense, you’re not alone.

Offense has disappeared in baseball. MLB teams averaged 4.0 runs per game in April, the lowest since 1981.

The league-wide batting average is .231, and OPS is .675, the lowest since 1968, which was widely known as the Year of the Pitcher, and which sparked such panic they lowered the mound the following year and began drawing up the idea of the Designated Hitter.

And this disappearing act is happening despite there being a DH in both leagues. 

What else is disappearing? Home runs. Major league baseball teams are averaging fewer than one home run per game. One home run. Remember when they’d routinely hit one per inning? Remember the scare that this game was turning into home run derby? No longer.

Remember the outcry that baseball was turning into the three-outcome game, home run, strikeout, or walk? That seems to have taken care of itself. Now it’s strikeout or walk. Just when you thought the game couldn’t get duller, it did.

All signs point to the ball being different. It’s not flying like it used to. That’s because the ball is being wound differently, in an effort to cut down on home runs.

One theory is, MLB is trying to make the launch angle era go away, bring back small ball, station to station baseball, doubles and triples, leave home runs to the true power hitters, you know, like it used to be.

That might not happen until they ban the shifts next year.

In the meantime, fans will be left wondering, “can’t anyone hit anymore?”

Right now, the answer is, no.

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