New Rules Making Big Difference in Texas Rangers Games

The Texas Rangers have seen a marked drop in the overall length of games through the first 10 contests compared to last season.

Major League Baseball wanted quicker games this season. The Texas Rangers have already seen the impact of the new pace of play, based on a comparison of game times from last season to this season.

This season MLB added a pitch clock, rules on pickoff attempts (or mound disengagements) and rules for batters being at attention by a certain point of the pitch clock. Some of these were being experimented with in the minor leagues before this season.

Throughout Spring Training and the early part of the season, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy has been a proponent of the pitch clock and what it can bring to make the game more fun and also a bit quicker.

“I think they’ve done a great job at bringing that (entertainment) back,” Bochy said. “You’re seeing it now with the pitch clock. You get more base hits, you try to create more base-running or stolen base attempts. I look at it that way to be honest.”

Last season, the Rangers, like all other MLB teams played without a pitch clock and no limits to mound disengagements. The results early last season were pretty typical.

The Rangers played 32 hours and 53 minutes of baseball in the first 10 games of last season, an average of 3:17 per game. One game went just over four hours. Just two games were played in under three hours, the shortest one being 2:37. The other seven clocked in between three and four hours.

After 10 games this season, the Rangers have been on the field for 25 hours and 58 minutes. The longest game the Rangers have played is 3:10, and that was their 16-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on April 1.

The Rangers have played eight straight games under three hours since. The average game time so far this season is 2:35.

The difference in the averages is 42 minutes.

Looks like the pitch clock and the other rules change are paying off early this season.

The Rangers (6-4) play the second of a three-game series with the Kansas City Royals (3-8) on Tuesday night (7:05 p.m.) at Globe Life Field. Texas won the opener 11-2 behind a record-breaking performance by pitcher Andrew Heaney.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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