CLEARWATER, Fla. — With the Yankees-Phillies game an hour old after three innings on Saturday, the pitch clock made a late comeback to ensure the exhibition ended in a crisp 2 hours and 34 minutes.
The Yankees got their first real experience with the new pitch timer in their Grapefruit League opener, and aside from one infraction by pitcher D.J. Snelten and a rushed trip to the plate for Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh, the game finished largely without issue.
“It’s fast,” said right-hander Ryan Weber, who started the game for the Yankees. “It’s fast for the hitter and the pitcher. I think the slowest time I looked up and looked at home, I think I had 12 seconds left. So I was working fast. But there’s going to be some getting used to on the pitching side, and [for] the hitter.”
Two other rule changes coming to Major League Baseball this season, restricted shifts and bigger bases, were also in play on Saturday, but were not nearly as noticeable as the three pitch clocks situated around BayCare Ballpark — one in center field and two on either side of the backstop.
Between batters, pitchers had 30 seconds to begin their delivery. During an at-bat, the timer started at 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 seconds with a runner on base. Batters also had to be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the eight-second mark.
“I would say we’re all kind of uber-focused on [watching the clock],” manager Aaron Boone said.
After no real issues in the top of the first inning, Marsh led off the bottom of the first. But he was slow to leave the on-deck circle, and by the time about 12 seconds remained on the timer, he suddenly ran to the plate and immediately got set in the batter’s box to avoid the automatic strike that would have come his way had he not been ready by the eight-second mark. Weber tried to groove a pitch thinking Marsh wouldn’t be ready, but he smacked it for a single.
Later in the game, Snelten was charged with an automatic ball when the 30-second timer between batters ran out before he started his delivery.
“I think it’s gonna be a good thing for the game,” Boone said. “I’m sure on some level, there’s that little adjustment, but everyone in the first game is able to make it. It’s good to see an umpire behind home plate today [Randy Rosenberg] with some experience with it [from the minor leagues], that knows the mechanics of it. And then it’s just good to see how the dead time restarts and everything. I thought from that standpoint, it was a good first day.”
It loomed larger elsewhere in the Grapefruit League on Saturday, when the Red Sox and Braves were tied in the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded, two outs and a full count. Batter Cal Conley did not get set by the eight-second mark and the umpire charged him with an automatic strike, resulting in a strikeout that ended the game in a tie.
The Yankees, meanwhile, had been using the pitch clock during live batting practices leading up to Saturday. But the game still came with some surprises.
“For me, a couple times I caught myself picking up our coaches for positioning and then I looked up and I was like, ‘Oh wow, our pitchers are already on their way home,’” shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “So the tempo’s a lot faster. Infielders, we’re going to love it. We’re always going to be ready now.”
The restricted shifts — infielders must stay on the dirt, with two players on each side of second base — also will take some getting used to.
“I felt like [I was] in jail,” second baseman Gleyber Torres said. “I didn’t want to move too much and I had an umpire close to me. I didn’t want to go too far. Inning by inning, it felt better and better.”