Pitch clock pressure reached Kyle Finnegan at Coors Field with the bases loaded, the count full, and Washington’s lead already gone. Four straight Colorado singles had wrecked his ninth inning. Now, with the score tied 7-7, he needed one strike against Ryan McMahon to keep the Nationals alive.
Finnegan never got to throw it.
On June 22, 2024, Rockies outfielder Brenton Doyle stood on second base, waving his arms as Finnegan prepared to deliver. Home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt stepped forward and tapped his wrist. The closer had exceeded the 18-second limit.
Ball four. Game over.
Colorado celebrated an 8-7 victory, the first walk-off win in MLB history decided by a pitch-clock violation.
According to MLB’s postgame report, Finnegan initially believed he had beaten the timer. Instead, his ninth violation of the season had just cost Washington a game.
His job was the same as it had always been: get the hitter out. But now, he had to beat the clock first.
For a pitcher already juggling mechanics, pitch selection, and a restless runner, those disappearing seconds had become another opponent.
The Night 18 Seconds Cost Washington Everything
Finnegan had entered the ninth with a two-run lead and a reputation for finishing tight games. According to MLB, he had converted 21 of his previous 23 save opportunities.
Then Colorado started hitting.
Hunter Goodman singled. Jake Cave followed. Doyle tied the game with another hit, and Ezequiel Tovar loaded the bases.
Finnegan still had a chance to escape. He jumped ahead of McMahon 0-2 before the count reached 3-2. One well-placed fastball could have produced the first out and changed the inning.
Instead, he lost track of the countdown.
Afterward, Finnegan admitted he had focused on finding his target and delivering the pitch. By the time he checked the clock and looked toward his catcher, he had left himself almost no margin.
“I was just a hair too late,” Finnegan told MLB.
That tiny miscalculation carried an enormous penalty.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez pointed out that Finnegan could have stepped off the rubber to reset the timer. However, the closer never took that escape route.
In that moment, his familiar closing routine worked against him.
Finnegan had already accumulated eight timer violations entering the game, more than any other pitcher in the majors. His deliberate preparation had survived previous close calls.
This time, the clock caught him.
When A Routine Becomes A Liability
Pitchers have always tried to slow down difficult innings. A visit behind the mound, a long look toward first, or a quick wipe of the forehead can help break an opponent’s momentum.
Before 2023, pitchers enjoyed considerably more freedom to make those pauses.
Now, every delay has a price.
When MLB introduced the timer, pitchers received 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners aboard. The league cut the latter allowance to 18 seconds in 2024.
A pitcher must begin his delivery before the timer expires. Missing the deadline costs an automatic ball.
The batter must also stand in the box and remain alert with eight seconds remaining.
Those rules don’t simply remove dead time. They change when a pitcher must think, breathe, and commit to his next pitch.
Finnegan’s mistake exposed the danger of treating the countdown as something to beat at the last possible instant.
A closer can shake off his catcher, adjust his grip, and study the hitter. But if those familiar movements consume too much time, the umpire can decide the confrontation without another baseball leaving his hand.
Kenley Jansen Had To Learn How To Pitch Fast Again
Few closers embodied baseball’s old, deliberate pace better than Kenley Jansen.
The veteran right-hander built his career around a devastating cutter and a mound routine that allowed him to gather himself between pitches. When trouble arrived, he preferred to slow everything down.
Statcast measured Jansen’s average time between pitches with runners aboard at 31.4 seconds in 2022. He ranked as baseball’s slowest worker in those situations.
The pitch clock threatened to dismantle that routine.
When Jansen joined Boston before the 2023 season, he faced more than a mechanical adjustment. He had to rethink how he prepared for the most stressful three outs in baseball.
Instead of fighting the new rules, Jansen spent the winter practicing with a timer.
His first spring appearance offered some encouragement.
According to MLB’s March 4, 2023 report, Jansen needed just 14 pitches to retire three Houston Astros hitters. He completed the inning without a single timer violation.
Afterward, he explained that he had gradually developed slower habits throughout his career. The countdown forced him to return to the quicker preparation of his younger years.
But a clean spring inning couldn’t reproduce the tension of a ninth-inning save opportunity.
Willson Contreras Found A Way Into Jansen’s Head
On May 13, 2023, Jansen entered the ninth against St. Louis with a two-run lead at Fenway Park.
The Cardinals knew his recent command had been shaky. Catcher-turned-hitter Willson Contreras found another weakness to attack: Jansen’s impatience with the timer.
Instead of settling immediately into the batter’s box, Contreras waited within the rules.
Jansen wanted to work quickly. At one point, he began his delivery before Contreras had properly established himself in the box. The umpire issued a warning.
A few pitches later, Jansen repeated the mistake. This time, the violation awarded Contreras ball four.
Suddenly, Boston had two runners aboard with nobody out.
According to MLB’s May 14 game report, the Cardinals eventually scored three ninth-inning runs to win 4-3.
Contreras later acknowledged that he had deliberately tried to frustrate the closer.
Jansen didn’t hide his irritation. He told reporters the Cardinals had disrupted his timing and accepted responsibility for failing to adjust.
The incident revealed something particularly nasty about the modern pitch clock.
A pitcher can lose control by working too slowly. He can also get himself into trouble by trying to work too quickly.
That’s a difficult balance for someone whose livelihood depends on repeatable movements.
The modern pitcher’s challenge is moving fast without rushing.
Baserunners Know They Can Steal More Than Second Base
Now imagine a pitcher standing on the rubber with a runner leaning away from first.
The runner shuffles two steps toward second. His knees bend, his eyes lock onto the pitcher’s front leg, and his lead grows just enough to demand attention.
The pitcher glances toward first.
By the time he looks home, several seconds have disappeared.
Another glance brings a new problem. A long hold could disturb the runner’s timing, but the pitcher cannot remain motionless indefinitely.
Pitch clock constraints turn that familiar cat-and-mouse game into something more complicated.
Two Pickoff Attempts Can Change The Entire At-Bat
MLB’s disengagement restrictions allow pitchers two step-offs or pickoff attempts per plate appearance.
A third unsuccessful pickoff attempt results in a balk. The limit resets if a runner advances.
Smart baserunners feed off those restrictions.
After two unsuccessful pickoffs, the runner knows another throw must produce an out to avoid a penalty. That knowledge can encourage a more aggressive lead.
The pitcher faces a choice.
He can shorten his delivery and risk compromising command. Alternatively, he can focus on getting a better grip on the baseball while the runner studies his timing.
Neither option feels comfortable when the hitter represents the winning run.
Runners on the corners create an even uglier problem. The pitcher must watch the steal of second without letting the man on third race home.
To survive, pitchers now have to vary their holds, use the slide step when appropriate, and stay in lockstep with their catchers.
A rushed delivery can send a breaking ball bouncing into the dirt. A predictable hold gives the runner a chance to anticipate the pitch.
The clock doesn’t directly create either mistake. It makes managing both threats more demanding.
The Stolen Base Boom Shows How Baseball Changed
The numbers reveal just how aggressively teams attacked the new environment.
Baseball-Reference’s year-by-year batting totals show a dramatic rise in stolen bases after MLB introduced its 2023 rule changes.
In 2022, major league players stole 2,486 bases.
The next season, that number jumped to 3,503, before climbing again to 3,617 in 2024.
Defenses eventually began adjusting.
The league recorded 3,440 successful steals in 2025, followed by 3,289 in 2026.
Even after that decline, the 2026 total remained more than 800 steals above the final season before the changes.
But the pitch clock isn’t the only culprit behind the stolen base boom.
Larger bases shortened the distance between bags. Restricted pickoffs reduced a pitcher’s freedom to harass runners, while aggressive teams found new opportunities to exploit those advantages.
Together, those rules changed the relationship between pitchers and baserunners.
A pitcher can still control a runner with quick feet, an accurate pickoff move, and unpredictable timing. Yet the margin for hesitation has narrowed.
The running game has become more dangerous precisely because pitchers must divide their attention.
Watch a tight game late in the season, and the pressure becomes obvious. The runner inches farther away. The catcher changes his target. The pitcher checks the clock before looking home.
Those movements once belonged entirely to baseball’s natural rhythm.
Now, they have a deadline.
Pitch Clock Constraints Raise A Harder Question About Pitcher Health
The psychological debate around the timer eventually collided with something far more serious: the growing number of injured pitching arms.
In April 2024, news of elbow injuries involving Shane Bieber, Spencer Strider, and Eury Pérez intensified an already heated argument.
MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark publicly criticized the decision to reduce the runners-on timer from 20 to 18 seconds.
The union questioned whether pitchers received enough recovery time between maximum-effort deliveries.
MLB pushed back, pointing toward rising velocity, increased spin, and injury trends that began long before the pitch clock existed.
The dispute went beyond how quickly someone could throw a baseball.
It concerned how frequently pitchers could perform violent, high-velocity movements without adequate recovery.
Justin Verlander Saw A Bigger Problem Than The Clock
Veteran right-hander Justin Verlander had watched pitching evolve into an arms race. By April 2024, another wave of elbow injuries had swept through the majors, and the three-time Cy Young Award winner wasn’t convinced baseball could blame one rule.
He had his own injury concerns, too. Verlander was working through a rehabilitation assignment with Houston’s Triple-A affiliate while recovering from shoulder inflammation.
Speaking with reporters after an April 7 outing, he acknowledged the obvious suspect.
“It would be easiest to blame the pitch clock,” Verlander said, before arguing that multiple factors were contributing to the problem.
His frustration centered on what pitchers must do to survive in today’s game.
“Everybody’s throwing as hard as they possibly can,” he explained, describing a sport increasingly obsessed with velocity and spin.
That pressure reaches every level of professional baseball. A young pitcher who can touch 100 mph knows what scouts want to see. Throw 95 and surrender a home run, and suddenly everyone wonders why he didn’t throw harder.
Verlander understood the contradiction. The same velocity that earns a pitcher a major league job can place extraordinary strain on his arm.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said.
The veteran wasn’t dismissing the timer’s possible effects. He was questioning a culture that demands maximum effort while continually searching for ways to squeeze more performance from the human body.
His concern carried particular weight because he had already undergone Tommy John surgery during his career.
An extra two seconds between pitches might help a tired pitcher recover his breathing. But those seconds cannot erase the stress created by repeated high-intensity deliveries.
Verlander didn’t pretend to possess an easy fix.
“Something needs to change. I don’t have all the answers,” he admitted.
His comments captured the frustration behind baseball’s injury debate. Pitchers want enough recovery time to protect their bodies, yet the sport keeps rewarding the very velocity that can place those bodies under greater strain.
Medical Research Shows Why The Argument Won’t Go Away
Four major studies published between October 2025 and September 2026 have produced a complicated picture of pitching injuries under the clock. At Columbia University, Dr. Michael Mastroianni and Dr. Christopher Ahmad found no significant overall increase in UCL surgeries after the timer arrived, although starters accounted for a greater share of those procedures. A January 2026 study led by Aaron Lavi, published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, offered more reassurance: the proportion of injured high-volume pitchers fell from 50.4% to 39.3% across the periods studied. But other researchers found reasons for concern. In Arthroscopy, Dr. Cody Ashy and colleagues examined 537 pitchers and linked each additional second shaved from their pitching interval to 19% higher adjusted odds of injury during 2023. Then, in September 2026, Layne Estes and researchers at NYU Langone reported that recovery from upper-extremity injuries lasted approximately six days longer after the clock’s introduction, while elbow injuries accounted for a greater proportion of those injuries. The studies measured different outcomes across different periods, making a simple verdict impossible. None could establish that the countdown itself caused the changes. For pitchers already dealing with workloads, maximum-effort deliveries, and previous injuries, the uncertainty offers little comfort.
The numbers don’t settle the clubhouse argument.
A veteran breathing heavily after a 25-pitch inning still has to collect himself before the next delivery. His elbow doesn’t care whether the clock makes baseball more entertaining.
Coaches must determine when faster preparation helps a pitcher stay sharp and when it pushes an already exhausted arm beyond its limits.
Faster Baseball Hasn’t Made Every Pitcher Worse
For all the controversy, the pitch clock has accomplished its most obvious purpose.
Major league games move faster.
The average game lasted roughly three hours and six minutes in 2022, the season before the timer arrived. By the end of the 2026 regular season, that figure stood at approximately two hours and 44 minutes.
Fans gained more action with fewer prolonged breaks.
Meanwhile, pitchers gradually learned to handle the countdown.
MLB’s September 2023 review found that violations had fallen from 0.87 per game during the season’s first 100 games to 0.34 across a later 100-game sample.
That decline matters.
It suggests that pitch clock constraints have created a difficult adjustment rather than an impossible burden.
Most pitchers learned to finish their preparation without repeatedly triggering violations.
But leaguewide averages cannot tell the whole story.
Jansen needed an offseason to change his routine. Finnegan discovered that even a successful closer could lose a game through one mistake.
Some pitchers operate comfortably at a brisk tempo. Others need more time to settle their breathing or manage the runner at first.
Baseball shouldn’t treat those differences as excuses.
Instead, teams need to understand which routines actually help their pitchers execute and which simply waste precious seconds.
A pitcher who stares at the countdown throughout an at-bat has already surrendered part of his concentration.
The better solution involves preparation that starts before he steps onto the rubber.
The Next Generation Must Learn To Control The Countdown
For pitchers entering professional baseball, the countdown increasingly feels normal.
They have spent much of their development working under timed conditions. Their routines form around the clock rather than existing in opposition to it.
Veterans face a different challenge.
Someone who spent a decade using long pauses must decide which habits remain worth protecting. That process can feel uncomfortable, particularly with runners threatening and a packed stadium demanding the next pitch.
But teams have practical ways to reduce the disruption.
Pitching coaches can build simulated baserunners and countdown pressure into bullpen sessions. Catchers can simplify communication when runners force multiple defensive responsibilities.
A veteran starter might rehearse pitching with a runner dancing off first after a long inning. A reliever could practice entering with the bases loaded and just enough time to identify his target.
Those repetitions matter because the stakes change once the stadium lights come on.
The pitcher hears the runner scraping toward second. His catcher lowers the glove. Somewhere behind the plate, the crowd starts shouting.
Pitch clock constraints don’t erase his ability to slow his thoughts. They force him to separate mental calm from physical delay.
That distinction may define the next generation of successful pitchers.
The statistics already show that most major leaguers can adapt to faster baseball. Medical researchers continue investigating the physical consequences, while teams search for better ways to protect their arms.
Yet the human challenge remains.
Go back to Finnegan at Coors Field. Four singles had already exposed him. McMahon stood ready for another pitch, and Washington needed its closer to regain control.
He still possessed the baseball. He still had a chance to get an out.
What he no longer had was time.
For generations, pitchers-controlled baseball’s pace by deciding when they were ready to throw. Today, that freedom comes with an expiration date.
And when the bases are loaded, 18 seconds can feel like the shortest distance between control and catastrophe.
READ MORE: From Ball Four to Second Base: How the League’s Best Runners are Killing the Slide Step
FAQs
Q1. How many seconds do MLB pitchers have with runners on base?
MLB pitchers have 18 seconds to begin their delivery when runners occupy the bases. The league reduced the limit from 20 seconds in 2024.
Q2. What happens when a pitcher violates the pitch clock?
The umpire awards an automatic ball. Kyle Finnegan’s 2024 violation forced home the winning run in Colorado’s historic walk-off victory.
Q3. Why does the pitch clock make pitching with runners harder?
Pitchers must watch baserunners, choose pitches, communicate with catchers, and control their deliveries before the timer expires.
Q4. Can MLB pitchers attempt more than two pickoffs?
Yes, but a third unsuccessful disengagement triggers a balk. The limit resets when a runner advances during the plate appearance.
Q5. Does the MLB pitch clock cause more pitching injuries?
Researchers haven’t established a direct cause. Studies show mixed results, while workload, velocity, mechanics, and previous injuries also affect pitcher health.
