Borussia Dortmund's Robert Lewandowski, second left, celebrates with teammates after scoring against Stuttgart in a league match on Friday. Dortmund won 6-1. Associated Press

Catch a game in Germany's Bundesliga this season and you have a better than one in four chance of witnessing a runaway. A whopping 27.3% of games have seen one team win by three goals or more this term, far more than in any other of Europe's top leagues.

And while you may not be guaranteed a blowout, it's almost certain that you won't witness a scoreless draw. There has been just one all season long in the Bundesliga—hang your heads in shame, Werder Bremen and Freiburg—amounting to 1.1% of the total.

Those numbers are bound to regress to the mean eventually. But they aren't entirely freakish or out of context either. Last season, 6.5% of Bundesliga games ended without a goal, compared with an average of 7.9% in France, Spain, England and Italy. And 17% of German matches ended in blowouts, compared with 13.1% in the other four leagues.

It's quite a stark difference when you consider that, in so many ways, soccer is generally rather uniform across its top leagues.

Take the aggregate average goals per game in Europe's top five leagues over the past five years and the spread ranges from 2.63 in 2008-09 to 2.75 last season.

And, within that, each league has been remarkably consistent. The Premier League's goals per game ranged from 2.77 to 2.80 in the past four years, while the Bundesliga's oscillated from 2.83 to 2.92, Serie A's from 2.51 to 2.63 and La Liga's from 2.71 to 2.87. France had the biggest swing in that time period, but even then it was a modest shift from 2.34 to 2.54.

The game may have its long-held stereotypes and clichés—the Premier League is physical and end-to-end, La Liga is slow but full of flair and technical ability, Serie A is defensive, the Bundesliga is disciplined and so on—but, in fact, they've been eroding rather quickly. It's a result of globalization and cross-pollination, prompted by the free movement of players and managers from one nation to another.

That's why, for all the perceived differences in style and philosophy, many of the outcomes aren't too dissimilar. Except, of course, when it comes to the Bundesliga this season. The lack of scoreless draws and even the average number of goals per game (3.28 this year, almost half a goal a game more than the next highest, Italy's Serie A, and nearly a whole goal more than the Premier League's 2.40) may be down to a small sample size and statistical clustering. But the sheer number of blowouts may have a more concrete explanation.

Fans may see more scores like this Bayern Munich win over Hamburg in March. Getty Images

Simply chalking it up to the presence of two outstanding, free-scoring sides like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund BVB.XE +2.63% Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA Germany: Xetra 4.99 +0.13 +2.63% July 11, 2014 5:35 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 260,187 P/E Ratio 7.21 Market Cap €298.53 Million Dividend Yield 2.00% Rev. per Employee €594,787 05/26/14 Ancelotti Still So Hard to Ass... 04/22/14 David Moyes Out as Manchester ... More quote details and news » won't do it. Between them, they've won eight games by three or more goals. It seems like a hefty total until you consider that, even without them, the Bundesliga still delivers more blowouts by some distance.

The explanation might be more philosophical. German clubs are generally happier to run up the score. Even after the game is effectively won inside the 90 minutes, they will continue to try to add to the total.

The epitome of this came in the 2008-2009 Champions League, when Bayern faced Portugal's Sporting Lisbon in the round of 16. Bayern won the first leg, in Portugal, 5-0, effectively clinching a place in the quarterfinal. In some European nations—notably France or Italy—you would have expected a team in such circumstances to take its foot off the gas in the return leg, fielding a combination of reserves and youngsters and simply letting the tie peter out. Instead, Bayern was relentless, going on to win 7-1, for a 12-1 aggregate victory that is still the biggest in the history of the tournament.

From Bayern's perspective, their players weren't seeking to humiliate the opposition. On the contrary, they were respecting them by going all out for 90 minutes.

That's in contrast to other countries, not to mention the U.S. where a number of sports have unwritten rules to govern these very circumstances, dating back to Little League and the mercy rule. Whether it's stealing a base late in the game in baseball or leaving your starters in for the fourth quarter in basketball, there are some things you simply don't do in American sports. A similar ethos exists in soccer in some nations where, if you're 2-0 up late in the game, you simply manage the situation, substituting your stars and lowering the tempo.

That's most definitely not the case in Germany.

There's no value judgment to be made here, of course, it's just down to how athletes are socialized from a young age and the notion of what respect means and how to manifest it.

But it does help explain why, if you're watching a Bundesliga game, you shouldn't be surprised if a team 4-0 up and facing an opponent that is down to 10 men continues to go hell for leather even as the clock winds down.

It's not that they don't have unwritten rules, it's just that theirs are different.