Mets pitcher Max Scherzer shows frustration with MLB’s strict pitch clock enforcement

Max Scherzer wanted to make sure that everyone know how he felt about the pitch clock, not holding back when he had to cut his warmup pitches short.

In the fifth inning of the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies June 1 game, New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer got into an argument with home plate umpire Tripp Gibson. New York Mets Catcher, Francisco Alvarez was the last out of the last inning, which caused him to be delayed in getting back out on the field for Scherzer to be able to take his warmup pitches.

MLB rules do state that pitchers are allowed to throw eight warmup pitches during the break between innings, which is two minutes. By the time the two minutes were up, Scherzer had not completed his eight warm-up pitches.

Max Scherzer was just looking for his normal routine

The pitch clock was implemented into the MLB back in 2015, which tried to speed the game up a little bit but it was never really enforced. The umpires would normally have the discretion to let the pitcher finish their warmup pitches.

Even though the conversation between Scherzer and Gibson looked very tense, Scherzer did explain that Gibson and he were on the same side. Scherzer also explained that Gibson stated that the league would get mad at him if he let Scherzer finish.

During a post-game interview, Scherzer explained;

"“Look, I’m doing my normal routine. Why do we need to step through the game and have the umpires change routines when it’s not my fault of what’s going on here … Why do we need a pitch clock for that situation? If I throw one more pitch, what, I’m one second slower? Why can’t the umpires have discretion in that situation to allow a pitcher to throw his eight normal warm-up pitches? Why do we have to be so anal about this to have the clock shoved in everybody’s face and try to step out every little single second that’s going into the game?”"

Even though Scherzer was upset about the pitch clock rule, the reasoning behind the pitch clock is working. Per CBS Sports, the average time of games has dropped from more than three hours to two hours and 38 minutes.

Even with Scherzer not being able to get all of his warmup pitches, he still only allowed one run on five hits thru seven innings. Scherzer did strike out nine batters and walked only one in the New York Mets’ 4-2 win. Scherzer is not having a bad year holding a 3.21 ERA and a record of 5-2.