Here’s how the spring opener ended in a tie, on a pitch-clock violation

NORTH PORT, Fla. — The Braves had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning in a 6-6 game against the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon.

Cal Conley, down 0-2 in the count, started to dig in against Boston righthander Robert Kwiatkowski when umpire Jansen Visconti raised his arm.

Strike three?

Yes, strike three. With the teams having agreed not to play extra innings, the game ended on an automatic strike as Conley was called out for not being set in the box with eight seconds left on the pitch timer.

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“We were looking at the clock and it was like, ‘Something is going to happen here,’ “Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We’ll take the point.”

A game that included 19 hits and 15 pitching changes lasted 2 hours and 39 minutes as pitchers and hitters were clearly cognizant of the timer.

Two Sox batters, Matthew Lugo and Raimel Tapia, were charged with automatic strikes. No Sox pitchers received an automatic ball for exceeding the 15 seconds to start their delivery with the bases empty or 20 with runners on base.

Richard Bleier, who pitched a scoreless second inning for the Sox, said he was trying to work at a faster pace.

“It was fine,” he said. “It’s different, no doubt. But it’s different for everyone.”

Bobby Dalbec didn’t feel like the game was moving quicker while he was playing first base or in the dugout.

“I don’t know how long guys were taking before,” he said. “Maybe 30 seconds? Thirty seconds or 20 seconds doesn’t make a difference to me.”

But it sure adds up. There were eight Grapefruit League games that started at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday. The average time of game was 2:35. The longest was 2:54.

“You’ve just got to get used to it,” Cora said. “The whole purpose is to speed up the game. It was good … Stuff like this is going to happen. Hopefully it doesn’t happen after March 30 [in the regular season].”

Dalbec connects: Dalbec has always hit well in spring training, so going 2 for 2 with a double and two-run homer is more of a tidbit than a trend.

But both of the hits were hammered to the opposite field, something that may be significant as he works to rebuild his swing after a poor 2022 season.

Dalbec re-read the book “A Zen Way of Baseball” by Japanese legend Sadaharu Oh during the offseason and reconnected with his Cape Cod League hitting coach, Benny Craig.

“Be less mechanical, not drilling things out,” Dalbec said. “I’m just trying to be athletic with my raw power … It wasn’t a swing overhaul. Just getting my direction back.”

Big plans: The Red Sox host the Twins on Sunday in their Grapefruit League home opener. Josh Winckowski is the scheduled starter and Triston Casas will bat leadoff. A 6-foot-5, 250-pound leadoff hitter? Cora said he made the decision only to give the media something to ruminate about. “I did it on purpose,” he said. Casas did have a .389 on-base percentage in the minors last season, so maybe there’s something to it