JUPITER, Fla. — About an hour before the Washington Nationals’ Grapefruit League opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday afternoon at Roger Dean Stadium, nearly everything looked familiar.
Fans crowded along the first and third base lines to get a picture and maybe an autograph. The players stretched as the grounds crew prepared the field. The Cardinals got a loud cheer from the 5,325 in attendance when the starting lineups were announced.
But as the teams lined up on each side of home plate ahead of the game, a noticeable addition could be seen on the backstop: a pitch clock. Two more were below the scoreboards in center field. And after Nationals leadoff hitter CJ Abrams fouled off the first pitch he saw from Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals right-hander got a new ball — and the clocks lit up, then began to count down from 15.
Advertisement
Two hours 26 minutes later, the Nationals’ first game of spring training — a 3-2 win — was complete. MacKenzie Gore pitched a scoreless first inning in his Nationals debut. Abrams had two hits and scored a run. A two-out single by Erick Mejia scored Drew Millas to break a 2-2 tie in the ninth.
“The pace felt different, but I like it,” Nationals Manager Dave Martinez said. “We got to clean up some things, some of our pitchers, to get a little quicker. For the most part, it was good.”
In the bigger picture, Saturday provided a glimpse of what’s to come with the pitch clock — 20 seconds with a runner on base, 15 with the bases empty. (Also new this season is a 30-second timer between batters.) If the pitcher doesn’t start his delivery by the time the clock has expired, he is charged an automatic ball.
Advertisement
In the second inning, Alex Colomé was penalized when time ran out on him. He then found himself down 1-0 in the count and rushed his next pitch and nearly allowed a home run before the ball died near the warning track.
Nationals catcher Riley Adams, who handled the first four innings Saturday, said everything feels fast right now but he believes the pitch clock won’t be noticeable after a few weeks.
“That’s what’s going to be the focus for a lot of these spring training games — getting that feel,” he said. “I was pretty much staring at that clock the whole time, just trying to understand how the clock works and how to figure out getting the signs relayed and getting on the same page with [the pitcher].”
Each batter will need to have a similar clock ticking in his mind. He has to be in the batter’s box with eight seconds left on the clock — or he’s charged with an automatic strike. Adams led off the second and fourth innings Saturday, so he sprinted to the dugout to take off his gear — he said he’s particularly slow at doing that — so he could be ready. Yadiel Hernandez wasn’t as swift; he was issued an automatic strike ahead of his first at-bat because he took too much time.
After the Nationals got their first look at the pitch clock, they got their first look at Gore. After coming over from the San Diego Padres last season in the Juan Soto trade, he didn’t pitch last season while recovering from left elbow inflammation. He tossed one inning Saturday, as planned, and threw 13 of 18 pitches for strikes.
Advertisement
Gore struck out Tommy Edman to open his outing, allowed a two-out double to National League MVP Paul Goldschmidt that bounced off third base, then got MVP finalist Nolan Arenado to fly out to right. His fastball consistently reached 95 to 96 mph, though Gore said he felt he could’ve thrown a bit harder. He liked the movement of his slider but thought he could have thrown better curveballs.
So what is he looking for in his next start?
“The stuff to keep trending up,” he said. “We threw some good sliders today, and we hadn’t done that really in camp so far. Keep throwing a lot of strikes, and hopefully the stuff just keeps getting a little better, and we should be all right.”
Gore admitted the pitch clock was an adjustment. He didn’t commit any infractions but did notice his timing was faster.
“Pretty quick,” he said before laughing. “You look up, and you got like two seconds. [The Cardinals] probably could’ve stolen third base like three times. Every time I looked up, I was at two [seconds] and I had to go. ... We got the pitch off. But, yeah, it was a little quicker than usual.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmhqYGeAcHyRaGluZ56Wwaq7zZqjrGWjpb%2BqusZmq6uZmaO2r7OMqKeeppWneqSt0Z2gp5mcqHw%3D