It feels like the World Series flew by, and it did.
This year’s World Series averaged 3 hours and 1 minute per nine-inning game, the shortest since 1996, according to Elias Sports Bureau, an American sports statistics company. The effect of the pitch clock was evident in the World Series.
The numbers also show that batting averages and stolen bases have increased, thanks to a combination of defensive shift restrictions and bigger bases.
“If you listen to people who pay attention to our games, the pitch clock has helped baseball and helped the crowd focus on baseball,” Nathaniel Lowe, first baseman for the World Series champion Texas Rangers, told the Associated Press.
Expanding to the postseason as a whole, games lasted 3 hours and 2 minutes per nine-inning game, down more than 20 minutes from 3 hours and 23 minutes last year and 3 hours and 37 minutes in 2021. 2021 was the last season before the introduction of PitchCom, an electronic device that exchanges signals between pitchers and catchers.
This year’s regular season was also the shortest since 1985, with an average game length of 2 hours and 40 minutes. That’s a huge improvement from the first season of the pitch clock.
This postseason, only one game lasted longer than four hours. It was Game 1 of the World Series, when Texas scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Last year, six of the 40 postseason games lasted more than four hours.
Three of the five World Series games that ended in Game 5 were under three hours. However, the fast-paced games did not translate into increased viewership. The average TV audience of 9.11 million viewers per game is the lowest ever.
With the introduction of the pitch clock, pitchers have 15 seconds to throw with no runners on base and 20 seconds to throw with runners in scoring position. There have been seven total pitch clock violations this postseason, none in the World Series.
The changes to make baseball more aggressive, such as banning defensive shifts and increasing base sizes (from 15″ x 15″ to 18″ x 18″), have also been proven by the numbers.
Through 41 games this postseason, runs per game have increased to 8.2 from 7.3 the year before, and batting averages have risen to .241 from .211. Left-handed 먹튀검증 hitters saw their batting average rise from .211 to .238. Stolen bases increased from 0.9 to 1.4 per game and stolen bases attempts increased from 1.1 to 1.6 per game. Success rate increased from 77.3% to 85.1%.