A dozen years beyond the steroid-fueled home run race won by Mark McGwire, past the era when power hitters ruled, the new kings are on the hill. A couple quick hits, so to speak, on how things have changed:

• Runs, homers and batting averages are at their lowest rate since 1998.
• Shutouts and strikeouts are at their highest point.

The numbers compiled by STATS LLC tracked games through the same spot in each season. There also were 17 games that finished 1-0 – that didn’t include the Mets-Cardinals matchup that went scoreless into the 19th inning before New York won 2-1 in the 20th. All these zeros, it is starting to look like a World Cup, more than a run toward the World Series. To Baltimore infielder, Ty Wigginton, it’s all right. The perfect games by Halladay and Dallas Braden, the near-miss by Armando Galarraga, the no-hitter by Jimenez, and the stellar pitching of David Price, pictured below, it’s better than good.

“I think it’s great,” said Wigginton. “It’s exciting for the game. I think everybody would rather see it the way it is now. When I think about a baseball game, I think about a 3-2 ballgame and all the different situations that can come up in a game like that to make it fun.”

Most likely, it’s more than the natural ebb-and-flow of the game. Rather, a combination of factors over the last several years that put pitchers back in command. “No more juice,” always-direct White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Maybe.”

Theories abound, but some speculate that the crackdown on amphetamines in 2006 played a bigger role than the steroid rules. The constant travel, long stretches without off-days, it is tough for hitters to stay fresh.

Plus, the focus on pitching seems to be greater than ever. Young guns such as Jeff Niemann, Mike Leake and Mike Pelfrey are showing up all over, followed by specialists for the seventh and eighth innings.

The crafty guys are still around, like 47-year old Jamie Moyer who became the oldest pitcher to toss a shutout. Livan Hernandez and Andy Pettitte keep adding to their win totals.

The Red Sox put a heightened emphasis this year on defense, a recent trend throughout the majors.

Then there are the new ballparks. Those cozy, homer-poppin’ parks in Baltimore and Philly aren’t so much the style now – spread-out spaces at Target Field in Minnesota and Citi Field in New York are in fashion. So is a move away from hitter-friendly artificial turf – Toronto and Tampa Bay are the only stadiums that have it, and the 162 total games on fake grass this season are the fewest in the majors since 1969.

Pittsburgh manager John Russell, however, forecasts a change as summer approaches. “I think every year it goes in cycles,” he said. “Early in the year, I think all starting pitchers after a few starts go through a little dead arm and then you see the offense pick back up. When that happens, bullpens get overused, so the offense continues to pick back up.

The days of pitchers throwing 30 complete games in a season, as Juan Marichal did for the Giants in 1968 are long gone. But after nearly two decades of being crushed under the spikes of sluggers, the guys on the mound are taking the game back this year – if not to ’68, then to the early 1990s, before the full onset of the Steroid Era. The Year of the Pitcher II is here.

The biggest story lines of the season have revolved around the prevention of runs, not the scoring of them – from Colorado, where Ubaldo Jimenez, pictured here, became the second pitcher in 80 years to win 13 of his first 14 starts, to South Florida, where the Marlins’ Josh Johnson became the second pitcher ever to allow no more than one run in eight straight starts.

There’s been the spate of no-hitters: four so far – most recently the one thrown by Arizona right-hander Edwin Jackson against the Rays – including two perfect games by Oakland left-hander Dallas Braden and Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay. If not for some unfortunate umpiring, Detroit right-hander Armando Galarraga would be on the list too.

There’s the across-the-board dip in offensive statistics” through Sunday, July 4. An average of 8.9 runs per game had been scored, down from the average of 9.3 through the same date last season. If that figure holds, this would be the first season with a per-game average under nine since 1992.

Home runs are in similar decline – the rate of 1.85 per game would be the lowest since 1993. Ditto for hits (the rate of 8.9 per team per game would be the lowest since ’93) and overall ERA (4.16, on pace for the lowest mark since ’92).

It’s not just a general trend: The list of individuals having standout seasons is lengthy. At week’s end 15 hurlers were on pace for 20-win seasons; in the last six seasons there have been 12 20-game winners combined. There were 22 starters with ERA’s below 3.00, the most at that point in a season since 1989.

Why the renaissance? It can be partly explained by the ban of performance-enhancing drugs. This is also an era in which organizations are smarter about how they develop young arms. Pitcher workloads are much more closely monitored than they were even a decade ago. Pitchers also get more help on the field than they did a generation ago.

With new statistical analysis driving a renewed appreciation for defense in many front offices, the fielders behind hurlers are better. And pitchers using video and digital technology to study hitters and themselves are more prepared than ever.

“There seems to have been an influx of tremendous talent on the pitching side the last few years,” says San Diego manager Bud Black, whose Padres’ had the best record in the N.L. at week’s end.

Whatever the reason, the game has changed. “The comeback of pitching has been good for baseball,” says one American League general manager.” You’re seeing new stars, new faces in the game. Let’s face it:

For a long time now, juiced-up sluggers have ruled the game.” It’s not the summer of ’68, but baseball’s balance has been restored. For the first time in a while, it’s safe to be a pitcher.

Check out the Coaching Clinic and the traditional pitching wind-ups.

His ERA is a minuscule 1.16 as Jimenez makes a run at Bob Gibson’s memorable season of 1968, when the St. Louis Cardinals great finished 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA, a performance so dominant that it led, in part, to the mound being lowered the following season. Dutch Leonard of the Boston Red Sox has the all-time low ERA for a starter in a season since 1900, turning in a 0.96 mark in 1914.

Jimenez, who threw a no-hitter against the Atlanta Braves in April, also had a 25 1/3-inning scoreless streak this season. He’s the first pitcher to have two 25-inning shutout streaks since Jack Morris of the Detroit Tigers in 1986. He is the first to pitch at least six innings and permit two or fewer runs in his first 12 starts. With his big, traditional pitching wind-up, Jimenez is on pace to become baseball’s first 30-game winner since Denny McLain in 1968.

Jimenez refuses to get too swept up in his burgeoning success, remaining down-to earth even with each dazzling display. His response to all the accolades is a fast dismissive wave of the hand, a way to keep the hype from going to his head. “I’m just really happy,” Jimenez said. “As a starter, you only pitch every five days so it’s so hard, especially when you’re having a season like this. You can’t wait for your next start to come.”

Rockies manager Jim Tracy said, “I can't describe what this man is doing. I know we aren’t seeing the finished product yet, but where he’s headed is a very, very special place. His fastball is explosive, and he pours it down hill. Ubaldo has become such a big-game pitcher. He has grown right before our eyes. I couldn’t be prouder for the young man.”

Arizona Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch said, “We make him work. Just when you think you’ve got him on the ropes though you look up and it’s still zero. That’s what an ace does. That’s the type of season he’s having.”

Jimenez’s transformation began last season when he set a franchise record with 25 consecutive starts of at least six innings from May 1 to September 7. The difference in Jimenez this season has been his ability to harness his fastball. No longer is he simply rearing back and zipping it past hitters. He’s getting the blazing pitch to dip, dive and cut, while also mixing in some nasty pitches such as a slider, splitter, curve and changeup.

“His delivery has evolved,” says his pitching coach Bob Apodaca. “He wants to be a Roy Halladay but with more power.” To that end, Jimenez, who is 6-4, lifts weights every day, which he says has helped him gain 10 to 12 pounds of muscle from the 200 pounds he weighed when he came up to the majors to stay in 2007.

Hall of Fame reliever Dennis Eckersley saw a glimpse of Jimenez’s talent in 2007, when the young fireballer pitched in the World Series against the Red Sox. “His command is so much better now,” said Eckersley. “He’s now always around the strike zone. That’s the thing with great pitchers like Roy Halladay and him. They have pitches that start in the strike zone and then leave.”

When he got pinch-hitting Ronny Paulino to hit a grounder to third for the 27th out, only then could Halladay bask in his moment – breaking into a big smile and wrapping his arms around catcher Carlos Ruiz before disappearing in a joyous, jumping gray-and-red mob of teammates. “It’s never something that you think is possible,” Halladay said. “Really, once I got the two outs, I felt like I had a chance. You’re always aware of it. It’s not something that you expect.”

It was the second perfect game in the majors this month alone, unheralded Dallas Braden doing it for Oakland against Tampa Bay on May 9. It’s the first time in the modern era that there were a pair of perfectos in the same season – Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez threw a no-hitter, too, in April.

“Early in my bullpen I was hitting spots more than I have been. I felt like I just carried that out there,” Halladay said. While there were a couple of good plays behind him – shortstop Wilson Valdez went deep into the hole for a grounder, backup third baseman Juan Castro went to his knees for another, second baseman Chase Utley ranged well to his left for another fine play – Halladay didn’t need any great defensive work in this gem.

“I think everybody knows you have to have those kinds of plays to do something like that,” Halladay said. Yes, but on this night, the 33-year-old righty known as Doc was a veritable one-man show. On this night, Halladay was the lone maestro. “You’ve got to take your hat off to Doc,” Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “That’s why he is who he is. That’s what they got him for.”

Steely-eyed, standing tall and always working swiftly, Halladay broke into a big smile as his teammates rushed in to congratulate him. “It’s hard to explain,” Halladay said. “There’s days where things just kind of click and things happen. It’s a great feeling.” The Marlins said they would give Halladay the pitching rubber as a souvenir. Working in the dark, four men went to work on the mound, digging up the slab where Halladay made history.

Halladay faced three Marlins pinch-hitters in the ninth. Mike Lamb led off with a long fly ball, but Shane Victorino had plenty of time to back track in the super-spacious outfield at Sun Life Stadium and squeeze it for the first out. Another pinch-hitter, Wes Helms, struck out, and the crowd filled with Phillies simply began to roar.

From there, it was all up to Paulino, who fouled the first pitch into the seats along the first-base side, took ball one, swung and missed for strike two, and then stabbed at Halladay’s 115th and final offering. Castro ranged to his left to get it and threw across to first baseman Ryan Howard, who caught the ball and jumped in the air.

Halladay credited catcher Carlos Ruiz for a smooth ride. “We felt like we got in a groove early and about the fifth or the sixth I was just following Chooch,” he said. “I can’t say enough about the job he did today. He mixed pitches. For me, it was really a no-brainer.”

The NL East leaders’ lone run off Josh Johnson came in the third, and fittingly in this battle of aces, it was unearned. Valdez singled and scored when Chase Utley’s fly to center skipped off Cameron Maybin’s glove for a three-base error. “J.J. did a great job of competing,” said Maybin. “Unfortunately, that one play was the ballgame.” Valdez scored easily. And Halladay had all the support he needed.”

Unshakable on the mound, not even three-ball counts fazed Halladay. He went to either 3-1 or 3-2 counts seven times, twice in the game’s first three batters alone and always worked out of the trouble. Chris Coghlan tossed his bat aside on the Marlins’ first plate appearance of the night, thinking he’d drawn a walk, only to hear umpire Mike DiMuro call strike three.

Jorge Cantu went to a 3-1 count in the second before striking out on a foul tip. Dan Uggla had a three-ball count before a fly out in the fifth, and Maybin added drama in the sixth.

Maybin showed bunt twice, drawing a small chorus of boos, and eventually worked his way ahead on the count 3-1. He ended up hitting a hard shot to deep short, where Valdez fielded it on a hop and threw to Howard in time to beat Maybin by a half-step, umpire Tim Welke taking a big swing to indicate the out.

Halladay got another nice play in the eighth when Castro went to his knees to snare a sharp grounder off Cantu’s bat, recovering and throwing to first in plenty of time. “I was thinking, if somebody hit a ball close to me, I was going to do whatever it takes,’ Castro said.

For the Marlins, Johnson threw a career-high 121 pitches in seven innings, giving up seven hits, one unearned run, one intentional walk, and striking out six.

“Halladay’s the best right-hander in the game,” said Johnson, “And he kind of proved it.”

“At first, I was trying to hit the ball far, but that wasn’t working too good,” said Hamilton. “Now, I just try to put the barrel on the ball. I’m working on being more patient, on getting my swing more level.” With that approach and the elimination of a toe tap from his swing, Hamilton has hit .477 (41-for-86) during a stretch of more than three weeks.

On July 1, however, Hamilton saw that hit streak, which was a Major League best, came to an end with a 0-for-3 performance in the Rangers’ 2-1 loss to the Angels. The hit streak, which raised his batting average from .291 to .343, also has set himself up for contention for the American League Triple Crown along with teammate Vladimir Guerrera. The Triple Crown was last done by the Red Sox’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

“I’ve been impressed with his discipline as far as his routine goes,” teammate Michael Young said. “The guy can put on BP shows with the best of them, and he’s hitting nothing but line drives up the middle in batting practice right now just trying to work on his craft. It’s like he’s maturing and growing up.”

Hamilton’s hitting surge coincides with a strong push by the Rangers, who were 20-5 in June to build a 4 ½ game division lead on the Angels. Los Angeles has won five of the last six AL West titles. “Anytime you get momentum going in a positive direction is good for everybody,” Hamilton said. “We’re having confidence, playing loose, and we’re bonding more as a team.”

Hamilton, 29, was the No. 1 overall draft pick in 1999 by the Tampa Bay Rays but is only in his fourth major league season. His career was derailed by his well-documented cocaine and alcohol addictions after getting hurt while in the minor leagues.

Hamilton hit .304 with 32 homers and an AL-leading 130 RBI’s in his first full season two years ago after the Rangers acquired him from the Cincinnati Reds, including his awe-inspiring performance in the Home Run Derby when he hit a record 28 homers in the first round going deep on 13 consecutive pitches.

“The one constant with Josh is the talent and the desire,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “This year, he’s putting together not just the physical side, but the mental side – the preparation, approach, and the understanding of what guys are going to try to him and how he’s going to prepare for that.”

Hamilton has performed well in the outfield, too. His six outfield assists are one off the majors’ lead. Josh made two impressive catches in Sunday’s 10-1 win, a running grab in the gap and a sliding catch. “He’s playing both sides of the baseball,” said his manager Ron Washington. “He’s doing everything that baseball requires for a talent like his.”

It came eight months after the Yankees won their first World Series title since 2000, clinching their six-game victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at his new Yankee Stadium, and two days after the team’s longtime public-address announcer, Bob Sheppard, died at age 99. Steinbrenner had been in failing health for the past several years and rarely appeared in public. He attended the opening game at the new stadium in April 2009, sitting in his suite with his wife, Joan (pronounced Jo-ann). When he was introduced and received an ovation, his shoulders shook and he cried.

Steinbrenner next appeared at the Yankees’ new home for the first two games of the World Series, then made his final appearance at the 2010 home opener, when Manager Joe Girardi and shortstop Derek Jeter, the team captain, came to his suite to present him with his 2009 World Series championship ring.

The blustering owner long familiar to Yankee fans and foes briefly re-emerged in October 2007 in a newspaper interview, when he threatened to fire Manager Joe Torre if the team did not advance beyond the first round of the AL playoffs. The Yankees were eliminated by the Cleveland Indians in that round, and soon afterward Torre departed after rejecting a one-year contract extension with a cut in his guaranteed salary.

In the eyes of Yankees figures from Steinbrenner’s heyday, his aura endured despite his frailty. “He’s arguably the most recognized owner in all of sports,” Jeter said. Following the Yankees’ World Series victory at the new stadium, Girardi said, “To be able to deliver this to the Boss, to the Boss, to the stadium he created and the atmosphere he created around here, it’s very gratifying to all of us.”

Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ principal owner and chairman, had ceded increasing authority to his sons, Hal and Hank, who became co-chairmen in May 2008. Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ managing general partner as well, was given control of the team in November 2008 in a unanimous vote by the major league club owners, who acted on his father’s request.

Steinbrenner was the central figure in a syndicate that bought the Yankees from CBS for $10 million. When he arrived in New York on Jan. 3, 1973, he said he would not “be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all.” Having made his money as head of the American Shipbuilding Company, based in Cleveland, he declared, “I’ll stick to building ships.”

But four months later, Michael Burke, who had been running the Yankees for CBS and had stayed on to help manage the franchise, departed after clashing with Steinbrenner. John McMullen, a minority owner in the syndicate, soon remarked that “nothing is limited as being a limited partner of George’s.”

Steinbrenner emerged as one of the most powerful, influential and, in the eyes of many, notorious executive in sports. He was the senior club owner in baseball at his death, the man known as the Boss. A pioneer of modern sports ownership, Steinbrenner started the wave of high spending for playing talent when free agency arrived in the mid-1970s, and he continued to spend freely through the Yankees’ revival in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the long stretch without a pennant and then renewed triumphs under Torre and General Manager Brian Cashman. Shown here are Steinbrenner and Torre with the 1998 World Series trophy. The Yankees went on to win the next two World Series as well.

The Yankees’ approximately $210 million payroll in 2009 dwarfed all others in baseball, and the team paid out millions in baseball’s luxury tax and revenue-sharing with small-market teams.

But Steinbrenner and the Yankees thrived through all the arguments, all the turmoil, all the bombast. Having been without a pennant since 1964 when Steinbrenner bought them, enduring sagging attendance while the upstart Mets thrived, the Yankees once again became America’s marquee sporting franchise.

Steinbrenner attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana in the mid-1940s. His father, who idolized the Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio and Bill Dickey, took him to Cleveland to watch Indians games, especially when the Yankees came to town. “We were in awe of the Yankees,” Steinbrenner.

Steinbrenner graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts with a degree in English. He served as an Air Force officer, coached high school football and basketball in Ohio, and was briefly an assistant football coach at Northwestern and Purdue.

In his last years, Steinbrenner seemed to mellow some. He cried in public on several occasions, including the time he walked past a group of West Point cadets who cheered for him at the Yankees’ 2004 home opener. He cried again in a television interview that day. “This is a very important thing that we hold the string to,” he said of the Yankees, his voice cracking. “This is the people’s team.” In building it into a fabulously successful and exceedingly lucrative enterprise, he never lost sight of his credo. As he told The New York Times in 1998: “I hate to lose. Hate, hate, hate to lose.”

Molina has won the last two National League Gold Gloves with an arm that dissuades base-stealers from even trying and a devastating pick-off move to first. “He’s a great player all-around,” pitcher Chris Carpenter said. “Everybody talks about his defense and the things he does behind the plate, but he’s no slouch at the plate and he never was.”

The 27-year-old Molina used to be the kid brother of Bengie and Jose Molina, two other major league catchers from the Puerto Rican family. Now that he’s coming off his first All-Star season, he is the Molina brother who first comes in mind.

“He’s the best at what he does,” Astros speedster Michael Bourn said, “the best catcher in the majors.”

Molina had three RBIs in a game early in May in Pittsburgh, two days after getting four hits and four RBIs in another victory over the Pirates. During the last home stand, he came through with the go-ahead hit in consecutive games while sounding anything but cocky. “We got the win,” Molina said. “I just want to be the guy. You’ve got to come every day ready to go.”

Molina hit a grand slam on opening day and finished April with 15 RBIs, the second-most by a Cardinals catcher in a month trailing only Ted Simmons’ 20 in 1977. He is tough away from Busch Stadium, too, with 16 RBIs on the road while most often batting sixth. With the bases loaded, he’s 4 for 5 with 11 RBIs. “He likes to be in that situation, it starts that way,” manager Tony La Russa said. “He enjoys the RBI situation, and the bigger the at-bat, the more he gets fired up.”

In 103 at-bats, he had struck out only 12 times, had a .379 on-base percentage and four steals in five attempts. He is not particularly fast, so he takes advantage when opposing pitchers apparently forget about him.

Beyond his imposing arm that has thrown out seven of 13 runners attempting to steal, pitchers rely on Molina’s judgment. While working seven scoreless innings in a recent victory over the Braves, rookie left-hander Jaime Garcia said he never shook off Molina’s signs. “He’s the best, he’s awesome,” Garcia said. “When you have a guy back there that’s the best in baseball you trust him. You know it’s going to be the right pitch every time.”

Since 2005, Molina is the majors’ best against the steal with a success rate of 42 percent. Durable, too, in that Molina caught all 20 innings in a 2-1 marathon loss to the Mets last month. He started 136 games last season, tops in the majors.

“Yadier is so much fun to watch,” La Russa, “the way he throws and thinks, the way he mixes up the sequences. If you watch him and only him, it’s worth the price of admission.”

Cox’s patience and willingness to live with the inconsistence associated with young players dovetails with his desire to win. “I think it’s a rarity for a veteran manager to like young players,” Wren says. “But Bobby thinks if a young player can make an impact, then why not have him on your team.”

Cox entered this season ranking fourth in career wins with a 2,413-1,930 record and trailing Tony La Russa, the only other active manager in the top four, by 139 wins. Although it might be unthinkable that he is going to walk away from managing, Cox has stood firm this spring.

As Chipper Jones notes, Cox is “not going anywhere.” He lives within driving distance in Gwinnett, Georgia, and the Braves’ low-A team in Rome, Ga. “In Bobby’s care, at his baseball center, is the cornerstone of scouting and player development,” says John Schuerholz, president and former general manager. “He loved working his way up through the minor leagues. He enjoys evaluating players.”

Schuerholz loves seeing Cox work with Jason Heyward, as well as veterans such as Jones. The Braves knew they had the right manager for Heyward. Cox has spent most of his life as a player, coach, general manager, and manager, including 24 seasons leading the Braves. Fewer would argue he is closer to Cooperstown than Heyward.

Cox, who first spoke to Heyward the day he was drafted 14th overall in 2007, acknowledges he’s not had a prospect like him. “Never,” says Bobby. “He’s hit some balls as long as I’ve ever seen – and hit them so hard.”

Cox managed the Braves from 1978 to 1981 and then the Toronto Blue Jays from 1982 to 1985, reaching the playoffs once. On June 22, 1986, when Heyward was 10 months old, Cox took over the Braves. Twenty years later, the iconic skipper is trying to end his managerial career with a 16th playoff appearance.

“Young guys, old guys, traded-for guys, rehabilitated guys – it doesn’t matter,” Schuerholz says. “What a great capstone it would be to a marvelous career for him to again become a world champion manager.”