By Kenny Ducey

Last season, Major League Baseball teams averaged 4.17 runs per game, the lowest such mark since 1992. The game has seen nearly identical scoring to date this season (4.18 runs per game, through June 6), enough of a sample size to confirm a trend versus an anomaly. On average, offense in baseball has seen steady decline over the past five years, though reasonable minds disagree why. Some credit improved pitching, while others believe the end of the steroid era means less power. While those and other reasons may be contributing factors to the undeniable decrease in scoring, another oft-overlooked trend may be most responsible: the shift.

Though a firm definition of the shift is open to debate, generally one infield defender is positioned in the vicinity of second base, with two others on either side of the infield.

Per Baseball Info Solutions, there were just 2,357 defensive infield shifts in the Majors during the 2011 season. In 2014, we have already seen over 5,000 infield shifts and it is still June. Teams are on pace to deploy 14,215 shifts this season, nearly doubling the number in 2013, which doubled the number in 2012.

“It’s affecting the game a lot,” says Shortstop Jed Lowrie, whose A’s rank 12th in the game when it comes to utilization of the shift. “As a hitter, you’re taught to hit the ball back up the middle. Now you have guys who play back up the middle.”

Managers often deploy the infield shift when left-handed hitters are batting. In those cases, the second baseman ranges far from his usual spot, acting as a “short-outfielder” to eliminate line drives and widen their range. Naturally, when the shortstop and third baseman are “shifted” to the center and right of the infield, respectively, lefty pull hitters are simply left with very little space to operate.

“I’ve heard some guys say it does mess with them a little bit,” Yankees infielder Scott Sizemore admitted. “You see three guys on one side of the infield and you’re like ‘Oh man, I don’t think I can get a hit over there’ so next thing you know you’re trying to do something different. And ultimately as a defense, I think [forcing a hitter to a secondary plan is] what you’re trying to do.”

Sizemore is right — it’s incredibly difficult to get a hit on the side of the field controlled by the shift. Teams are using spray charts like never before, and they know the tendencies of every hitter.

“There’s so much more paperwork, and so many more details about what you can do. Line charts, the whole package,” says Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire. “We’d never shifted on [Mark] Teixeira until this year batting left-handed. He didn’t have a ground ball on the left side of the infield, so we started moving around.”

These batters can’t hide from their habits anymore, and defenses are forcing them to try and do something different. Even some of the game’s best hitters, like Albert Pujols and Chris Davis, have been neutralized by the shift. Pujols is hitting .257 on the year, which is right on par with last season’s career-low, and had already been shifted 143 times through early June — the 10th-most in the majors. Davis’ average has dipped 62 points from last year (to .224), and he’s been shifted a handful more times than Pujols. The performance of both players can be traced back to infield alignment; they’re hitting .203 and .140 against the shift, respectively.

Though the data may be too fresh to draw definitive conclusions, there does seem to be at least one common trait among player who have shown themselves capable of “beating the shift” — they’ve had it deployed against them long enough to know how to deal with it.

Boston’s David Ortiz, whom Gardenhire noted was the first hitter to see the shift regularly, has managed to hit over .300 in each of the last three seasons. Lowrie, Ortiz’s former teammate, says it’s because the big lefty slugger hasn’t let the shift effect him mentally. “I don’t think it changed [David’s] approach. Because that’s his strength. As a defense, you’re giving up something to try and take away his strength. As an offensive player, if you don’t play to your strength, then you’re giving in.”

But can bucking the numbers be that simple for a player? Can clarity of mind and confidence in one’s abilities really foster better results against shifted defenses? Sizemore thinks so:

“The more guys see [the shift], the more they try and forget about it and just go up and try and hit the ball hard like they normally do.”

Left-handed hitting Yankees Catcher Brian McCann has responded to more shifts against him this year with an increased number of line drives to left and center field, but he is still hitting just .148 against non-traditional infield alignments. It could just take time to adjust mentally, and forget about the infield alignment.

Pitchers have a lot to do with the shift as well — those who rarely pitch inside are more susceptible to hitters slapping balls to the opposite field. After all, the shift is great for ground balls and line drives, but it doesn’t have much of an affect upon balls that are crushed down the right field line at ballparks like AT&T Park or Yankee Stadium. As such, Gardenhire doesn’t view the shift isn’t a defensive panacea. “If I have a pitcher that’s constantly throwing gas on the outside corner to a left-handed hitter, there’s more chance that he might shoot the ball the other way.”

Yankees manager Joe Girardi, on the other hand, takes the opposite field hits in stride. “You’re playing the percentages,” he says. “For the most part, you’re going to be right. There are going to be those times you’re not going to be right. I don’t think you can let those few times you’re not right affect you too much.”

The numbers indicate Girardi’s contemporaries share the same sentiment. For example, through June 6, the Houston Astros’ use of the shift had saved the team 10 runs (as they deployed one a league-high 577 times). Only four teams saved 10 or more runs in similar fashion all of last year, just two accomplished that level of success in 2012. With advanced metrics now being studied— to some degree, at least —in every clubhouse in the Majors, even veteran managers like Buck Showalter are beginning to play the odds.

It could only be a matter of time before scoring rates in baseball revert to early-1900's levels, and that would be just fine with Gardenhire. “We’ve seen a lot of really good pitching this year, [but] better pitching with playing guys in the right spots, it all adds up.”

@KennyDucey is an On-Air Host and Knicks/Yankees Beat Reporter at WFUV Sports. He works as a Radio Freelancer with the Associated Press, WFAN-NY, and CBS Sports, and contributes to It’s About the Money of the ESPN Sweet Spot Network.