NORTH PORT, Fla. — Major League Baseball’s new pitch clock rule is coming in high and hard at Tampa Bay Rays players.
“You see that clock going down; I got to go, go, go,” Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan said.
“When you start looking at the clock, I’ll see 12 seconds, ‘I got so much time.’ Really I only have 3 or 4 seconds left,” Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe said. “It speeds the game up for sure.”
Baseball was a game that has relished in taking its sweet time until now.
“Maybe a little bit of basketball with the shot clock,” Rays outfielder Josh Lowe said. “The guys are kind of joking around calling it the shot clock.”
Pitchers now have 15 seconds between pitches with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners on base to start their delivery or be assessed an automatic ball.
It can also go the other way. Hitters must be in the batter’s box with eight seconds left or pay the price with an automatic strike.
“There will be times if there was a bad call or a bad swing, or something like that, you would reset yourself a little bit,” Brandon Lowe said. “Now, you can’t do that.”
“You kind of miss that sense of being able to take a deep breath sometimes and getting that clearing breath,” Josh Lowe added.
Of course, the pitch clock is an effort to speed up the game. The average time of the game last season with 3:06. The average game time during spring training is 2:38.
“I like it,” Rays catcher Christian Beathancourt said. “The games are super quick now. In the blink of an eye, you’re in the fifth inning already.”
The Rays open the season on March 30 against the Detroit Tigers at Tropicana Field.
