Something interesting is going on with offense this season. Compared to the first four weeks of 2014, scoring is up. This season, games on average are producing 8.45 runs compared to 8.37 runs through April 27, 2014. (All 2014 stats in this post will be through that date.) Home runs are up ever so slightly, 1.80 per game in 2014, 1.84 per game in 2015. The biggest change, however is in walks, which are down to 5.97 per game compared to 6.38 per game last season. Non-home run hits are down slightly, leading to the number of players reaching base per game dropping to 23.56 this season compared to 24.01 in 2014. Somehow, despite fewer base runners, teams are scoring more runs.

Is it the strikeouts? They are way down, 15.94 per game in 2014, 15.14 in 2015. Fewer strikeouts means more balls in play, and maybe those extra balls are moving runners a bit more. I don’t think that’s enough.

Is it more power on doubles and triples? Isolated power this season is .141 versus .140 in 2014. So there is a very tiny element there.

The big reason appears to be timing. With runners in scoring position in 2014, batters were hitting .242/.324/.376. This season that’s up to .259/.338/.405. It looks like a case of luck evening out.

Going back to the drop in strikeouts, however, I’ll note that maybe batters are trying to put the ball in play with RISP. In 2014, batters struck out 1518 times in that situation in 6331 at bats, 24%. This year, they struck out 1360 times in 5963 at bats, 22.8%. Runners will score more often on a ball in play than on a strike out.

It’s good to see MLB hitters adjusting to the realities of the game. Always swinging for the fences in a low home run period isn’t always the best idea. Maybe we’ll see a reversal in the climb in strikeouts this season.