MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that he is "pushing for 'pace of action' initiatives" in ongoing CBA talks with the MLBPA, according to Tom Verducci of SI. Those efforts "might include a pitch clock," which has been used in the minors for the last two seasons. That comes as games this postseason have "often been long on wasted time." Cubs-Indians World Series Game 2 was a "forgettable monument to unnecessary pauses," as it took 4:04 to complete the 5-1 game. Verducci: "None of the six previous nine-inning games in World Series history that went more than four hours yielded fewer than 15 runs." Game 3 also accounted for the "slowest 1-0 Series game ever" at 3:33 and set a record "for most pitchers (10) used with only one run scored" (SI, 11/7 issue). THE RINGER's Ben Lindbergh wrote as "exciting as some of the postseason’s series have been," it has started to resemble Manfred’s "worst nightmares about baseball’s on-field future." The length of the average nine-inning game time in the playoffs has "expanded to 3:24:30, up almost 24 minutes relative to the regular season." The average time between pitches has "climbed a full second, to 22.8 seconds." The average time between innings is also up, from 161 seconds to 199.6 seconds. To "make matters slower, playoff managers have used 9.3 pitchers per game, up from 8.3 during the regular season." It would be one thing if October’s longer game lengths were the "result of more runs, but the delays have coincided with less action than usual." All sports are subject to some of these delays during the playoffs, but baseball’s "lack of a clock makes it more susceptible than most" (THERINGER.com, 11/1).
