Tougher testing for steroids didn’t lead to a dramatic decrease in offense during the first week of the season.

Home runs declined slightly from the opening week of last season, but scoring was up a little bit.

An average of 2.17 homers per game were hit last week, down 2.3 percent from the 2.22 average in the first week of the 2004 season and nearly the same as the 2.18 average in the opening week of 2002.

All three years were well below the 2.74 average in the first week of the 2000 season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Runs were up 2.7 percent, to 9.97 per game from 9.71 last year but below the 10.03 average in 2003. The major league batting average was .269, an increase from .267 in the first week last year.

Attendance was up slightly, with the 88 games averaging 31,503, an increase of 0.8 percent from 31,252 in the first week last year and the highest opening-week average since 31,876 in 2001.

An average of 2.25 homers per game were hit in 2004.