Tampa Bay Rays embrace new pitch clock that's speeding up MLB games

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Major League Baseball players are officially on the clock this season and so are the games themselves.

"Well, they go by faster, right? You definitely notice that" explained Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash.

The league hoped that adding a pitch clock would limit pickoff attempts and mound visits, and America's Pastime would get in the fast lane.

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"Wow, it's been an hour and a half, and we're almost done," Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan can remember thinking to himself at times this season. 

So far, however, McClanahan's feelings are well-founded. On average, the MLB games are running 31 minutes faster this season than they were at this point in 2022 with games currently finishing in 2:39 in 2023.

The Rays getting ready to take on the Astros

"Certainly, you can tell that some games are going a lot quicker, but I feel like it's a good thing that our games haven't felt that much faster," said second baseman Brandon Lowe. "We're scoring runs and playing longer ball games, I feel like."

"I'm definitely a fan of it, and I think a lot of guys are, and I think it's been good for baseball so far," McClanahan said.

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Being on the clock, however, has undoubtedly forced some, if only temporarily, to change their approach to the game.

"The first five or six games, I was really focused on the clock," Cash admitted. "It's kind of gotten more normal now that I'm watching baseball again. It's kind of more normal."

There is one thing, however, this heightened pace-of-play can't claim.

"Everything that's come from our offensive output has strictly just been a credit to our guys one through nine," said Lowe.

With the Rays undoubtedly the hottest team in baseball, the clock can't take away their red-hot start to the season.