This March 13, 2025, file photo shows the pitch clock in operation at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul during a Korea Baseball Organization preseason game between the Kia Tigers and the Doosan Bears. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean baseball league announced Thursday the average time of a nine-inning game has been cut by 13 minutes in 2025, the first year of the pitch clock.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said through Wednesday’s action, nine-inning games had taken an average of 2:57. Last year, those games took 3:10.
The last time KBO games lasted under three hours on average was 1998.
The KBO introduced the pitch clock this season in hopes of speeding up the game. Pitchers must start their delivery within 20 seconds with the bases empty, and 25 seconds with runners on. A violation will result in a ball call for the pitcher.
Batters must get into the box within 33 seconds, and they only have two timeouts per plate appearance. A violation will cost the batter a strike.
The KBO said the pitch clock has had its desired effects. Only 13 games have lasted longer than 3:30 this year, compared with 36 at the same point a season ago. There were 15 games that lasted less than 2:30, up from seven such games at this point in 2024.
According to the KBO, there have been 0.4 pitch clock violation per game, and no batter has exceeded the two-timeout limit yet this season, with 98 percent of all batters having called just one timeout in their plate appearance.
For this season, the KBO lowered the strike zone in the second year of the automated ball-strike system (ABS), without changing the size.
The league said 164 pitches that would have been strikes in the upper part of the zone last year have been called balls this year. On the flip side, 202 pitches that would have missed the zone low last year have been called strikes this year.
Also in 2025, the KBO reduced the number of extra innings to be played before ties are called from 12 to 11. That has cut the average game time, including extra-inning games, from 3:13 last year to 3:00 this year.
Of 12 games that needed extra innings, three ended in ties.
(Yonhap)
