Skip to main content
baseball

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher R.A. Dickey throws to the Baltimore Orioles in the fifth inning of a baseball game in Baltimore, Saturday, June 18, 2016.Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press

There is a good chance that if you are watching a Major League Baseball game involving the Toronto Blue Jays this season, you will be in and out of the stadium in less than three hours.

In an era in which both pitchers and batters are on the clock in order to try to speed up play, a sub-three-hour game is considered downright brisk.

And if R.A. Dickey is the starting pitcher for Toronto on that particular day, the chances for a quicker game are that much better.

The American League club may not be lording it over the competition as many had hoped this season, but the Blue Jays remain in the thick of a playoff hunt.

Heading into Friday's game in Chicago against the White Sox, the 40-34 Blue Jays were in third place in the AL East, 21/2 games back of the front-running Baltimore Orioles as they approach the midway point of the season.

The club's starting pitching has played a large role in Toronto's success this season, where a philosophy of working fast is viewed as a key component of the rotation's solid delivery.

"During the game, less is more," Pete Walker, the Blue Jays pitching coach, said earlier this week in an interview. "Just being free on the mound and not overanalyzing and overthinking is very important. And working at a fast pace lessens the time to think."

Clearly, the Blue Jay starters have not had that much time to think this season.

Heading into the weekend, the rotation of Dickey, Marco Estrada, Marcus Stroman, J.A. Happ and Aaron Sanchez was the AL's quickest group, averaging 19.8 seconds between pitches, according to data collected by FanGraphs.com.

The Texas Rangers ranked No. 2 at 20.9 seconds, with the Minnesota Twins No. 3 at 21.3.

The New York Yankees are at the other end of that spectrum, ranking 15th and dead last in the AL, with their starters averaging a lethargic 24 seconds between pitches.

For the Blue Jays, it is clearly a group effort.

All five of the Toronto starters fall within the top 10 in terms of pitching tempo among those pitchers who have thrown at least 90 innings this season.

No other team except for the Texas Rangers (Colby Lewis and Cole Hamels) has more than one player on that list.

Dickey, a perennial front-runner when it comes to working fast, sets the pace with an average of 18.2 seconds between pitches. That's the quickest draw in all of the majors.

For the sake of comparison, Zack Greinke of the Arizona Diamondbacks is the turtle among major-league starting pitchers (minimum 90 innings), averaging 24.5 seconds between tosses.

"Pitching fast has always been easy for me, like a deep breath and here we go," said Dickey, the 2012 Cy Young Award winner in the National League when he played for the New York Mets.

Stroman, at 19.4 seconds, clocks in at No. 3 in the A.L. as far as pitching pace is concerned, followed by No. 5 Estrada (20.1 seconds), No. 6 Sanchez (20.5) and No. 9 Happ (20.8).

And the quick work clearly seems to be paying off.

Heading into this weekend's series in Chicago, Toronto starters lead the AL with 32 wins and are third overall with a 3.76 earned run average. The starters are No. 1 in innings pitched (471.2) and opponent's batting average (.236).

And all that speedy pitching is also paying off on shortening game times, something MLB has made its primary concern the past couple of years.

According to MLB, the Blue Jays were averaging just over two hours 52 minutes for their nine-inning games this season, the fastest in the majors.

The Elias Sports Bureau reports that of the top 21 fastest nine-inning games in the A.L. this year, Toronto has been involved in six of them, more than any other team.

The Blue Jays' fastest game this year was on May 21 against the Minnesota Twins when they breezed through nine innings in 2:19.

Not only does working faster help a pitcher repeat his delivery, which in turn helps promote better control, but it also livens things up for the defensive players who hate nothing more than just standing around.

"I remember, when I was playing, Chris Woodward telling me how much he enjoyed playing behind me because I worked fast," said Walker, who pitched eight seasons in the majors before stepping down after the 2006 season. "And I think that's big. You don't want your defence on the field any longer than they need to be.

"Obviously you don't want to rush as a pitcher but you certainly want to have a good pace. It's more or less get the ball, get the sign and attack the glove. I just think that philosophy is a very integral part of this staff."

A key component to a fast-working staff is the catcher, who relays the signs to the pitchers. And in Russell Martin, Toronto has one of the best.

He said the defence can become bogged down when a pitcher is pitching at a snail's pace.

"The one that comes to mind is Josh Beckett," Martin said. "I felt like he was a human rain delay out there. And I've had my fair share in my career where it's just like slower than normal."

At the same time, Martin said he remains a baseball purist and isn't really in favour of all the clocks MLB has put into place to try to speed up pace of play.

"It's like the beauty of baseball is the fact that there is no time," Martin said. "So if you don't like it, go to the restroom."

Martin said pitchers in particular should not have to feel overly rushed when they are out on the mound.

"Pitching is a freaking art, man," he said. "You're not going to tell a painter, 'Hey man, I think you should paint quicker.' I should be able to take the time that I need to paint what I want to paint. Period. I'm not going to tell Jackson Pollock, 'Hey, I don't like what you're doing with your style. You need to be quicker.' "

Martin likes to point back to a pitching speed demon like Mark Buehrle, who finished up his distinguished 16-year career with the Blue Jays after last season.

Since the pace of pitching first started being tracked at the beginning of the 2007 season, Buehrle was the perennial fast-pitch champion, ranked No. 1 in seven of the next eight seasons.

A 214-game winner in his career, Buehrle set the pace once again last year in his final season, with a 15.9-second average.

Buehrle "didn't have tremendous stuff," Martin noted. "But he found a way to compete and win games. What's the recipe behind that?

"Maybe he's not giving the hitter enough time to think, to get his thoughts together to have an approach after he's made a pitch. Like, 'Oh he's just thrown me a cutter, what's he going to do now?' "He's on the mound ready to make a pitch right away."

Pace of pitchers in the American League, as of June 24

Quickest rotations in AL

1. Toronto Blue Jays, 19.8 seconds (between pitches).

2. Texas Rangers, 20.9.

3. Minnesota Twins, 21.3.

4. Chicago White Sox, 21.5

5. Seattle Mariners, 21.7

Slowest rotations in AL

1. New York Yankees, 24

2. Boston Red Sox, 23.3

3. Oakland Athletics, 22.5

4. Detroit Tigers, 22.4

5. Kansas City Royals, 22.2

Quickest starters in AL (minimum 90 innings pitched)

1. R.A. Dickey, Toronto Blue Jays, 18.2 seconds

2. Chris Sale, Chicago White Sox, 18.9

3. Marcus Stroman, Blue Jays, 19.4

4. Colby Lewis, Texas Rangers, 19.7

5. Marco Estrada, Blue Jays, 20.1

Slowest starters in AL (minimum 90 innings pitched)

1. Masahiro Tanaka, New York Yankees, 26 seconds

2. David Price, Boston Red Sox, 25.6

3. Hisashi Iwakuma, Seattle Mariners, 25.2

4. Edinson Volquez, K.C. Royals, 24.7

5. Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers, 24.

Interact with The Globe