BASEBALL’S CLOCKS GO UNWATCHED ON OPENING DAY
• What clock? The new digital timers tracking between-inning breaks and pitching changes did not appear to be noticed much on Monday, the first full day of Major League Baseball’s renewed effort to speed the pace of games.
New regulations require hitters to keep a foot in the batter’s box — with seven exceptions. The clock times inning breaks and pitching changes at two minutes, 25 seconds for locally televised games and 2:45 for nationally televised games. Pitchers must throw their last warmup pitches before 30 seconds remain, with exceptions if the pitcher or catcher is on base when the previous half-inning ends.
MLB said penalties are limited to warnings and fines, and those don’t begin until May 1.
Batters used to stepping out tried to keep one foot on the chalk outlining the box.
“We didn’t have any problems at all. The hitters were excellent,” plate umpire Gerry Davis said after working the plate as Boston’s Clay Buchholz pitched the Red Sox to an 8-0 victory at Philadelphia. “The only issues we had was, Clay took a little long getting back out to the mound. He had three innings where he made the last out. It’s difficult to get out in that time. ... I actually noticed that he was hustling and thanked him for doing it.”
Boston’s David Ortiz, known for stepping out of the box, adjusting his gloves and spitting into them between pitches, stayed in. He went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
Baseball announced the changes in February after the average time of a nine-inning game stretched to a record 3:02 last year, up from 2:33 in 1981.
While watching the St. Louis Cardinals’ 3-0 win at the Chicago Cubs in Sunday night’s opener on television, a game that included, 23 strikeouts, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy humorously tweeted “if this is the new strike zone I think you could convince pitchers to use a 10-second pitch clock.”
Detroit beat Minnesota 4-0 in a game that took 2:30. Plate umpire Joe West said there were only two violators: Minnesota right-hander Phil Hughes was late for the first inning and reliever J.R. Graham was late for the eighth.
“We had one Detroit hitter step out of the box with both feet, and I said, ‘Hey,”’ West recalled. “He said, ‘Oh, I forgot,’ and he jumped back in. He didn’t hold up the game.”