Editing Major League Baseball (section)

===Pitching dominance and rule changes===
[[File:MLB runs.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Graph showing, by year, the average number of runs per MLB game]]
By the late 1960s, the balance between pitching and hitting had swung in favor of the pitchers. In 1968—later nicknamed "the year of the pitcher"<ref name="yearofthepitcher">"[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/news/1998/08/04/1968_pitchers/ 1968 – The Year of the Pitcher]" ''Sports Illustrated'', August 4, 1998. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521002248/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/news/1998/08/04/1968_pitchers/ |date=May 21, 2013 }}</ref>—Boston Red Sox player [[Carl Yastrzemski]] won the American League batting title with an average of just .301, the lowest in the history of Major League Baseball.<ref name="yaz">{{cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hibavg3.shtml|title=Year by Year Leaders for Batting Average|access-date=September 8, 2008|publisher=baseball-almanac.com|archive-date=January 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102184025/https://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hibavg3.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Detroit Tigers]] pitcher [[Denny McLain]] won 31 games, making him the only pitcher to win 30 games in a season since [[Dizzy Dean]] in 1934.<ref name="denny">{{cite web|url=http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=162|title=When Denny McLain stood baseball on its ear|access-date=September 8, 2008|author=Bailey, Mary|year=2000|work=The Detroit News|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113182959/http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=162|archive-date=January 13, 2009}}</ref> St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher [[Bob Gibson]] achieved an equally remarkable feat by allowing an [[Earned run average|ERA]] of just 1.12.<ref name="gibson">{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gibsobo01.shtml|title=Bob Gibson Statistics|access-date=September 8, 2008|publisher=baseball-reference.com|archive-date=September 6, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906225615/http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/gibsobo01.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>

Following these pitching performances, in December 1968 the MLB Playing Rules Committee voted to reduce the strike zone from knees to shoulders to top of knees to armpits and lower the pitcher's mound from 15 to 10&nbsp;inches, beginning in the 1969 season.<ref name="mound">{{cite magazine|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1969/03/24/from-mountain-to-molehill/|title=From Mountain To Molehill|access-date=March 9, 2009|author=William Leggett|magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]]|date=March 24, 1969 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826001422/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1082211/index.htm|archive-date=August 26, 2012}}</ref>

In 1973, the American League, which had been suffering from much lower attendance than the National League, sought to increase scoring even further by initiating the [[designated hitter]] (DH) rule.<ref name="dh">{{cite web|url=http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/s/2003/0327/1530427.html|title=Blomberg first permanent pinch-hitter|access-date=September 8, 2008|author=Merron, Jeff|year=2003|work=[[ESPN.com]]|archive-date=January 12, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112212936/http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/s/2003/0327/1530427.html|url-status=live}}</ref>