The Minnesota Twins have had a hard scoring time scoring runs lately but they ran into another obstacle on Sunday afternoon – the pitch clock.
The Twins were mounting a rally in the top sixth inning when Alex Kirilloff stepped to the plate. With runners on first and second with two outs, Kirilloff faced an 0-2 count and was ready to face Toronto reliever Thomas Hatch when he was called for a pitch clock violation. The automatic strike caused a strikeout and ended the inning.
Inning ends for the Twins with a pitch clock violation for Kirilloff with 2 on base pic.twitter.com/6IH3VD4AP2
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) June 11, 2023
The call was made when home plate umpire Brian Walsh, who was moved behind the plate after Hunter Wendelstedt left the game early after taking a foul ball off his arm, deemed that Kirilloff did not offer to Hatch with eight seconds remaining on the pitch clock.
The MLB’s pitch clock rules that were placed into effect this season state that a batter must “offer to the pitcher” within eight seconds of the pitch clock or they will be assessed an automatic strike. Replays showed Kirilloff was looking at the mound with eight seconds left on the pitch clock, but the play is unreviewable and after a brief argument, the Twins moved onto the bottom of the sixth inning.
The call proved to be costly for the Twins as an Emilio Pagán meltdown led to a 7-6 defeat, but at least you can credit the Twins for finding a new way to add to their league-leading 678 strikeouts.
