Major League Baseball will maintain its pitch-clock rules during the postseason, hoping the positive momentum of faster regular-season games translates similarly into playoff atmospheres where games have been notoriously longer, sources told ESPN.
Players had expressed interest in adding time to the clock, which mandates pitchers throw the ball within 15 seconds of receiving it when the bases are empty and 20 seconds with runners on.
But MLB's executive council agreed not to amend any rules before the postseason and on Friday the league informed the joint competition committee — made up of players and ownership representatives — of its decision, sources said.
The clock has been a rousing success, trimming the average game time by nearly 25 minutes, to 2 hours, 39 minutes. As players have adjusted to the clock and figured out ways to more effectively use their one timeout per at-bat, game times have jumped slightly, from 2:37 in April to 2:41 in July and August.