A Game Ends on the Clock

February 25, 2023, a spring-training game in North Port, Florida, Braves against Red Sox. It was the first full day of the new pitch clock. The bases were loaded in the bottom of the ninth, the count was full, and there were two outs. Cal Conley, the batter, was not in the box and set when the eight-second clock ran out. John Libka called strike three. The game ended, 6–6.

Robert Kwiatkowski was the pitcher. The clock recorded the last out before he had to throw another pitch. Spring training is where a rule is supposed to look strange before it looks ordinary, and this one announced itself by ending a game.

The entry is that ending: the first time a clock, rather than a swing or a call of the eye, recorded the last out of a major-league exhibition.