TAMPA — Opening Day is quickly approaching and there are still issues with the pitch clock, something the Yankees and Luis Severino experienced on Tuesday.
The right-hander was called for a violation for letting the clock expire with one out in the top of the fourth and Detroit’s Austin Meadows at the plate.
The pitch clock operator ruled the 15-second pitch clock with no one on base had expired before Severino started his motion, but the Yankees disagreed.
“That was stupid,” Severino said. “I still think that was not a violation because I saw the clock and it was still at two [seconds] and I started doing the windup.”
The buzzer caused home plate umpire Jerry Layne to call the violation, which resulted in ball four to Meadows.
“I thought [the call] was a whiff and not on Jerry’s part because they’re going off the vibration [of the buzzer],” Aaron Boone said. “To me, it was a clear non-violation … I thought that was really wrong.”
There is still time for the league to make adjustments to the new rules and Jose Trevino said, “I think MLB is going to do whatever MLB wants to do at this point. There are rumblings, I hear, of them modifying something here in the last week. But everybody’s guess is just as good as mine.”
Boone said there will be a call with the league this week to discuss the clock and he stressed that he’s mostly pleased with the results so far.
“Overall, I like the clock,” Boone said. “I think it’s great. I think it’s gonna be great, but there are a few nuanced things that could, of course, be better.”
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Dan Martin
