Pitch clock violation costs Braves a walk-off walk
Cal Conley of the Atlanta Braves thought he had just won the game with a twoout, bases-loaded walk-off walk on Saturday. He took a few steps toward first base, bat still in hand, when umpire John Libka jumped out from behind the plate and indicated strike three.
Game over. Conley couldn’t believe it. Neither could his teammates. Fans booed.
Welcome to 2023, where baseball’s new rules designed to improve pace of play are coming fast at everyone, particularly the players.
The most dramatic moment of the new pitch clock era arrived on the first full day of spring games, and in the most dramatic scenario possible. Conley, facing reliever Robert Kwiatkowski of the Boston Red Sox, wasn’t set in the box and alert to the pitcher as the clock wound under eight seconds.
The penalty is an automatic strike, which led to the game at North Port, Fla., finishing in a 6-6 tie. Kwiatkowski got the strikeout after throwing only two strikes.
The pitch clock is one of the new rules designed to speed pace of play. Players will have 30 seconds to resume play between batters. Between pitches, pitchers have 15 seconds with nobody on and 20 seconds if there is a baserunner. The pitcher must start his delivery before the clock expires. After a pitch, the clock starts again when the pitcher has the ball back, the catcher and batter are in the circle around home plate, and play is otherwise ready to resume.
Song throws
Phillies right-hander Noah Song threw off a mound during his third day of workouts after joining the team from the U.S. Navy and said the session was “good.” The 25year old had been a flight officer training on a P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft before he was allowed to transfer from active duty to reserves.
Song was impressive in his only pro season, making seven starts for Boston’s Class A Lowell affiliate in 2019, striking out 19 in 17 innings with a 1.06 ERA. With a fastball in the upper 90s mph, he went 11-1 with a 1.44 ERA and 161 strikeouts in 94 innings during his senior year at Navy.
The Phillies selected Song from the Phillies in the December draft for unprotected minor league players.
Clark: Rising payrolls good for game
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. » A handful of free-spending owners in Major League Baseball have made some of the game’s other owners a little nervous.
Players’ union head Tony Clark doesn’t mind that development one bit.
“Baseball is doing very well,” Clark said.
Clark’s perspective isn’t shared by all. There’s a group of owners — including Pittsburgh’s Bob Nutting — who believe that a recent jump in free agent spending is part of the reason smaller market teams, like the Pirates, struggle to remain competitive. It’s one of the reasons MLB recently formed an economic reform committee.
Cards’ Marmol: Ump ‘has zero class’
JUPITER, FLA. » St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said umpire C.B. Bucknor “has zero class” for refusing to shake his hand during the lineup card exchange at home plate before a game against Washington.
Marmol was seeing Bucknor for the first time since being ejected in a contentious dispute Aug. 21 in Arizona.
“I went into that game pretty certain of my thoughts on him as an umpire,” the Cardinals’ second-year manager said. “... I went out to home to shake his hand. He didn’t want to. He has zero class.”