Major League Baseball’s new pitch clock is something it’s going to take a lot of time for most of us to get used to.
Don’t get it twisted — it’s a good thing. We’re already seeing faster game times. It definitely has its warts, but this is something that will ultimately benefit the sport of baseball in the end. Pitchers also seem to love it — a lot.
Why? This at-bat from the Pirates’ outfielder Tucupita Marcano shows us exactly what the deal is.
He may have just had the quickest strikeout in MLB history against the Yankees’ Wandy Peralta. Not only did it take just 3 pitches to strike Marcano out, but those pitches also all came within a few seconds of each other.
All it took was 8 seconds for Marcano to fall down 0-2 in the count.
holy crap quickest strikeout in baseball history 😮 pic.twitter.com/qozT78jnmW
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) March 2, 2023
Jomboy actually clocked the at-bat at 20 seconds. THAT’S IT.
Yankees relief pitcher Wandy Peralta struck out a hitter in 20 seconds pic.twitter.com/VwEBzyXH99
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 2, 2023
The pace was jarring for me sitting at home watching this on my laptop. It felt like watching someone repeatedly tap X while playing MLB: The Show where you can move forward quickly.
So, of course, Marcano probably wasn’t completely prepared for the speed Peralta was moving at. He didn’t seem to be, anyway.
Pitchers are going to catch batters off guard with some of these pitches all season long. There’s not a lot of pausing between pitches anymore — batters have to stay at the ready. If they don’t, they’ll end up like Marcano did here.
Again, this is going to take some time to get used to. We’ll see how batters adjust throughout the season.