Pitch clock speeding up games
By the time Cubs outfielder Brennen Davis actually saw a pitch from Arizona’s Joe Mantiply, the count was already at a ball and a strike.
Both the hitter and pitcher were penalized at the start of Davis’ at-bat to lead off the top of the third inning of Monday’s spring training game, the latest odd twist in baseball’s speed-up rules. After Mantiply entered the game as a reliever, he took too long to throw his warmup pitches; then Davis was too slow to get ready for the pitch.
Major League Baseball approved its first pitch clock this season, and every day is a new experience for the players as they try to get used to them this spring. On Saturday, Boston’s game against Atlanta ended on a walk-off automatic strike; on Sunday, Mets ace Max Scherzer struck out Washington’s Joey Meneses in just 27 seconds.
“I like the idea of games being shorter,” Marlins reliever Matt Barnes said. “In Boston, we played a nine-inning, four-and-a-half-hour game against New York on a Tuesday. That’s not fun. So I like the idea of it being quicker.”
So far, it’s working.
The new rules, which also limit the number of times a pitcher can throw to first base, have helped cut more than 20 minutes from spring training games through the first weekend, dropping from an average of 3 hours, 1 minute last spring to 2:39.
“It’s here, and we have to abide by the rules, and we have to learn how to do it,” Barnes said. “I’ll just have to figure out my routine, adjust my routine a little bit and kind of go from there.”
Old days
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said there will be no pitch clock in use when New York plays Tampa at Disney’s ESPN Wide World Sports on Tuesday because the facility isn’t equipped for it.
The Rays’ game with the Yankees will be the only one played at the complex, and the first big-league spring training game there since the Atlanta Braves moved to North Port, Florida following the 2019 exhibition season.
On the other hand
A day after Scherzer fanned Meneses on three pitches in the time it used to take a lot of pitchers to throw one, the Mets played a more traditional 2:59 game against the Cardinals, with St. Louis winning 12-7.
The teams combined for 19 runs – St. Louis won 12-7 25 hits, 11 walks and 18 strikeouts. There were two balks, neither of them because a pitcher stepped off too many times, and three wild pitches.
Mets manager Buck Showalter made three pitching changes in the middle of an inning; Cardinals pitching coach Dusty Blake made two mound visits.
Marmol said it was more like what he was used to.
“The pace is obviously is going to be quicker. That’s for sure,” he said. “But the 2:26s of the world—i’m not sure about those."
Blue Jays: Former Houston Astros general manager James Click was hired by the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday as vice president of baseball strategy.
Dodgers: Infielder Gavin Lux went down going from second to third in Monday’s game against the San Diego Padres and had to be taken off the field on a cart. He was clutching his right leg.
Rays: Pitcher Tyler Glasnow threw just six pitches before cutting short a live batting practice session with an abdominal muscle injury, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The paper said he will have an MRI on Tuesday.
Salaries: Major League Baseball's average salary rose 14.8 percent to a record $4.22 million last year after the end of the lockout, boosted by deals for Max Scherzer, Francisco Lindor, Marcus Semien and Corey Seager. The rate of increase was the highest since a 17.7 percent increase in 2000 to $1.61 million, according to final calculations by the players’ association.