With an average time of three hours and 15 minutes, no team in MLB "plays games that take longer" than the D-backs, according to Nick Piecoro of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. However, the team said that it "can do only so much when it comes to speeding up the game." Factors contributing to game length include "a lot of runs scored by both teams," and the D-backs' pitching staff "hasn't been very good, and that has led to a lot of pitches being thrown." D-backs pitchers "take an average of 24.2 seconds between each pitch," and "only the Red Sox, at 24.3 seconds, take longer." Meanwhile the Blue Jays are the "fastest-working team in baseball," with game times averaging two hours, 54 minutes. Piecoro notes it "might be only a matter of a few seconds per pitch, but those seconds add up over the course of a game." D-backs pitching coach Mike Butcher said, "For us to be near the bottom is not where we want to be." Butcher also "thinks there’s a correlation between working fast and working effectively." D-backs P Daniel Hudson, whose average time of 28.7 seconds between pitches leads the team, said, "We’re pitching in tough situations and we don’t want to just get on the mound and go." He added, "I don’t want to be playing four-hour games, either. But at the same time I’m not going to go out there and just chuck it because the games are taking four hours." Piecoro notes D-backs' hitters’ pace "hasn’t been quite so slow as the pitchers’ -- they’re tied for ninth at 22.6 seconds -- but they, too, take their time for a reason" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 5/24).
