MLB pitch clock cut time from Cincinnati Reds spring training games

On Mar 27, 2023

GOODYEAR, Ariz. – If there is one major takeaway from watching Major League Baseball adopt a pitch clock, the lesson is fans should make sure they arrive on time.

The Cincinnati Reds played a spring training game last week in a blistering one hour, 52 minutes. The 112-minute game still featured a combined five runs and 12 hits. A time of game that seemed unimaginable in recent seasons is just another sign of the sport’s quickened pace.

How much faster are games?

The average time of a Reds game during spring training was two hours, 36 minutes. The Reds’ quickest spring training game in 2022: Two hours, 36 minutes.

A digital clock stands in for the newly introduced pitch timer during live batting practice at the Cincinnati Reds Player Development Complex in Goodyear, Ariz., on Monday, Feb. 20.

There was a 24-minute decrease from the Reds’ average spring training time of game compared to 2022 and 2021, according to an Enquirer analysis. The Reds played 26 of their 30 games this year in under three hours. Their longest game was a 14-14 tie against Oakland that took three hours and 16 minutes, a wild affair that featured a combined 29 hits, 16 walks and seven wild pitches.

“The pitch clock, I feel like it helps because you just have to get right back on the rubber and go,” said Graham Ashcraft, who pitched six scoreless innings in the game that lasted 112 minutes. “It keeps that rhythm. It doesn’t allow the hitter to disrupt that rhythm, which I feel is a big thing for us.”

Under the pitch clock, which was previously tested in the minor leagues, pitchers have 15 seconds to throw a pitch with the bases empty and 20 seconds with a runner on base. If they take too long, they are penalized with an automatic ball.

Hitters must be ready to hit in the batter’s box with eight seconds left on the clock, otherwise they will be hit with an automatic strike by the umpire. The number of pitch clock violations committed by pitchers and hitters dropped from 2.03 per game in the first week of spring training to 1.03 last week, according to a memo MLB sent to teams.