ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Cardinals and Colorado Rockies tried to speed up the pace of play on Tuesday.
Major League Baseball experimented with having the timing clock between half innings set at 1 minute, 45 seconds. Since 2016, the clock has been set at 2:05 for locally televised games and 2:25 for nationally televised games, down 20 seconds for each from 2015.
Nine-inning games are averaging a record 3:05 this season – up from an even 3 hours last year and 2:56 in 2015. Management proposed three changes last offseason the players’ association didn’t accept, and MLB has the right to start them next year without union approval: restricting catchers to one trip to the mound per pitcher each inning, employing a 20-second pitch clock and raising the bottom of the strike zone from just beneath the kneecap to its pre-1996 level – at the top of the kneecap.
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