Every Monday Baseball Musings compares the offense of the current season to the previous season through the same number of full weeks. Through seven full week the majors produced 8.69 runs per game compared to 8.65 runs per game last season. The increase comes from all of the components of offense going up. Home runs per game rose from 2.03 per game to 2.17 per game. Walks are up from 6.39 per game to 6.59 per game. Other hits are up from 14.11per game to 14.15 per game. On top of that, strikeouts are down from 16.82 per game to 16.54 per game. Hit by pitches are down from 0.83 to 0.74 per game, so overall games see about 0.3 more batters earning their way on per game.

So the game has found an equilibrium year to year, very close to nine runs per game. With strikeouts down more than walks are up, there is a bit more action on the field.

Last week saw games produce 8.53 runs per game. It was a big week for home runs at 2.48 per game, but that did not lead to an explosion of scoring as walks were down to 6.21 per game.