Mariners’ Jerry Dipoto a fan of some pace-of-play measures

By some small miracle, the Mariners’ 14-6 win over the Rangers on Monday lasted only 3 hours and 32 minutes. “Only,” you ask? Well, considering the game featured a 49-pitch inning from one pitcher, two innings in which a team batted around and another in which nine batters were sent to the plate, plus 13 walks, 20 runs and seven pitching changes, 3:32 was more than reasonable.

In the future, such a game could be shorter. Improving pace of play has been a focus of MLB for some time now, with a number of options to speed games up on the table. Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto, who sits on the MLB rules committee, has changed his thinking on one of measures we could see as soon as next year.

“I really do think that the time clock (on pitchers) as much as five years ago, it turned my stomach to think of putting a shot clock on a baseball game,” he said. “I think it makes all the sense in the world. We watch it happen in the minor leagues. It’s very productive; it keeps the game a little bit shorter. The players have adapted to it. Once we introduce it at the major-league level, it’s now been going on in the minor-league level and through the Arizona Fall League for long enough that the next generation of player is going to be used to it and it’s no longer an adjustment; it’s natural for them.”

It has been, for lack of a better term, evolving through baseball. In talking with both pitchers who have come through the minor leagues and major-league pitchers who have been sent down to get work in the minors, most have said they don’t even notice the pitch clock.

They most likely would not be bothered either by another proposed change, the automatic intentional walk, something Dipoto is very much in favor of.

“The one bizarre, off-the-backstop pitch that you are waiting for in a six-month period of time be damned,” he said. “The idea is that over the course of a season there are roughly 1,000 intentional walks. If it takes 12 seconds to throw a pitch, get back on the rubber and throw another pitch, you are saving about 27 hours over the course of a season just by telling them to go to first base.”

While he is in favor of pitch clocks and eliminating the intentional walk, Dipoto, a former reliever, wants no part of reducing the strike zone.

“I have no interest in shrinking the size of the strike zone. I’ve been through that one before and it stunk,” he said with a laugh.

Limiting the number of pitchers a manager can use in a game is also out of the question for Dipoto.

“I think it is absurd limiting the number of pitchers you can use in a game,” he said. “That, to me, is asking for trouble. It’s asking for injury and for you to play with a limited roster.”

Dipoto has an interesting perspective on the proposed changes. From player to front-office executive and before all of that a fan of the game who as a kid spent his summers in Cooperstown, he has an appreciation and respect for what he calls “the goodness of the game” while keeping an open mind about what could make it better.

“One of the things that I think is great about baseball is it does take time,” he said. “It takes time. It’s enjoyable to watch. It’s more of a chess match than a thrill ride and when you get to this time of the year, the chess match can be thrilling.”

Seager’s rare steal

Kyle Seager stole his third base of the season in Monday’s win.

“Sometimes late in the season, some teams don’t pay attention to certain guys, and Kyle always wants to take the extra base and show everybody that is part of his game, even though we try to tell him it’s not really part of his game,” manager Scott Servais said on the pregame show. “But when he times it right and has the right situation, giving him the go-ahead and green light to go, he takes off. He’s had very good jumps and he’s got a couple of stolen bases in the last week.”

Notes

• Tom Wilhelmsen threw a 25-pitch bullpen session Tuesday afternoon and reported that all went well. He is scheduled to throw a simulated inning on Thursday and could be activated from the 15-day disabled list as soon as Friday.

• Angels starter Matt Shoemaker has been released from the hospital after having surgery to stop bleeding on his brain from being hit in the head by a line drive against the Mariners on Sunday. According to multiple reports from Angels beat reporters, he should return to Anaheim in the next day or two.