From sluggers galore to sluggers no more, the power's out in the AL

The previously anonymous Joe Saunders had just 15 major league wins entering this season but has already grabbed six more. Damian Strohmeyer/SI Related Links BP: Explaining the shortage of runs GALLERY: Memorable seasons for starters SI VAULT: Incredible shrinking slugger HEYMAN: Cliff Lee leads the pitching takeover

With one quarter of the season gone, the hardest hitting being done in the American League are the whacks applied nightly to the league's reputation as a hitter's haven. The AL has become a pitchers' league. This takes some getting used to, unless you'd prefer not to, of course, and put your faith in the last three-quarters of the season taking a head-spinning U-turn and bringing back those 9-8 games of AL mythology.

Deny it if you will, but something really weird is going on here. The AL, home to the DH, slugfests, and scoreboards and ERAs that explode, has gone soft. Fewer runs are scored in AL games than in the NL. Runs and home runs in the AL have sunk to their lowest levels since 1992, the year before expansion helped trigger the greatest slugging boom the game has ever seen.

"I'm more likely to bring my infield in sooner now," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. Each run has become a little more precious.

Shutouts are on pace to increase by 42 percent this year. Did you see the Cleveland-Toronto doubleheader Monday? One more scoreless inning and they were headed to a shootout. Rumor had it the Leafs had scouts at the game.

Compared to league stats through May of last season, runs are down eight percent and home runs are down 20 percent in the AL. (Offense is up slightly in the NL, by the way.) At this rate almost 300 home runs will be sucked out of the league in one year, and more than 600 from as recently as 2004. The league batting average (.259) has not been worse over a full season since 1976.

The league once chewed up and spit out has-been ex-NL pitchers such as Livan Hernandez and Sidney Ponson. But Hernandez is 6-1 and Ponson has a 3.18 ERA.

And how did Cliff Lee morph into Sandy Koufax? Last year Lee became only the second Indians left-hander to post an ERA worse than 6.00 while being allowed to pitch at least 90 innings. (It had been 80 years since Earl Whitehill pitched that poorly). But now Lee is virtually unhittable. His ERA (0.67) is a number a certain presidential candidate hasn't seen in years.

Zack Greinke? Joe Saunders? Shawn Marcum? Greg Smith? Who are these guys and what the heck has happened to the AL as we knew it?

"From my perspective, pitching is up in the American League," Maddon said. "Don't blame it on what's wrong with the hitting. The pitching I see is better across the board, team by team."

Come to think of it, Maddon's Rays are one of the chief reasons why the AL has lost its thunder. Having emphasized pitching and defense, Tampa Bay sliced 71 runs off its runs-allowed through its first 38 games. That's an unheard of improvement of almost two full runs per game. It's early, but the Rays look like a dark-horse contender, playing the right kind of baseball at the right time. Run prevention, rather than old school run production, is the coin of the realm.

On the other hand, remember how the Tigers and Yankees were just supposed to bludgeon their way to October? Uh, not so much. Being older, unathletic and power-dependent is so analog these days. Tampa Bay's Matt Garza, for instance, dominated New York on Monday night by throwing 98 fastballs among his 108 pitches, and his fielders gobbled up everything in play.

Just for fun: here are your AL teams in playoff position today: Red Sox, Rays, Twins and A's. Yes, it is very early, folks. And Lee, for instance, can't possibly keep this up, and it's not exactly like we're back to 1968 and need to lower the mound. But for now Lee is the preeminent face of the year pitching has reasserted itself in the AL.