Guardians pitcher James Karinchak penalized for MLB pitch clock rule

On Mar 31, 2023

James Karinchak had to pick up the speed. Then the eighth inning effectively sped up on him — though a foul tip that wasn’t certainly didn’t help matters.

In the process, Major League Baseball’s new pitch clock rule was brought into the spotlight on Opening Day for the Guardians and Seattle Mariners. Already, the pitch clock designed to hasten the pace showed up in the game’s biggest moment. Or rather, it helped lead to the decisive blow.

In the eighth inning of a scoreless game, Karinchak had Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford down 0-2 before he became the first Guardians pitcher to be penalized by the pitch clock for not beginning his delivery by the time the clock hit zero. The result was an automatic ball to bring the count to 1-2.

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Now, Karinchak getting nabbed by the new rule seemed like almost a certainty entering the season considering he’s known for his pre-pitch routine, which goes a little something like flip the ball, tug on the hair, adjust the cap, and repeat two or three or seven times. If any pitcher in baseball was going to have put some effort into adhering to the pitch clock, he’d have to be near the top of the list, if not at the very top.

Karinchak went from up 0-2 to eventually walking Crawford to put the go-ahead runner on base. Perhaps the bigger element to that walk was that the fourth ball, upon replay, went off of Crawford’s bat. But that isn’t a call that can be reviewed, and Crawford was given first base. Karinchak then hit the next better before giving up to decisive three-run home run to Ty France.

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There isn’t any clear evidence that the pitch clock infraction was what threw off Karinchak. And the call of whether the pitch to Crawford was ball four or a foul ball likely had more of an impact either way. But it served as a perfect example of one of the major questions surrounding the new rule: Will pitchers be impacted by needing to speed up in order to avoid an infraction? Will the presence of the clock occasionally become a real factor?

“I thought up to that point … it didn’t really enter the game,” Guardians manager Terry Francona told reporters in Goodyear, Ariz., speaking of the new rules in place. “I think James, it was getting loud. He was having trouble hearing. I thought [Mike Zunino] did a good job of going out there. And again, I don’t know if it’s the clock or the situation or just it’s cold, but it was noisy. The atmosphere really god more alive in that inning.”

This is the new baseball world. The goal is to shorten games by, potentially, around 20 minutes. But there are things to work through in terms of how the pitch clock is operated. For example, one question is exactly when does it start after certain plays? One example brought up is if a pitcher backs up third base, which is a routine play all the way down to Little League. But depending on when the clock starts, pitchers won’t want to lose any allotted time to deliver the ball.