The pitch clock arrived in Major League Baseball this past weekend and the results were immediately felt in Arizona and Florida.

The first 40 exhibitions played Friday through Monday afternoon featured an average game time of two hours, 37 minutes. That’s 21 minutes faster than the first 40 contests played last spring.

How it plays in the regular season remains to be seen, but the early sample is in line with what occurred at the minor-league level in 2022.

Last year, pitch clocks shortened games in the minors by 25 minutes to 2:38. The MLB clock, 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners on, is just a bit longer than the clocks used in the minors (14 and 18 seconds).

Only six of the first 40 spring contests averaged more than three hours. The Astros and Nationals took 2:07 to complete a game Sunday.

The three-year average in MLB for nine-inning games is 3:07. The record for average nine-inning game, 3:10, was set in 2021 but dropped by seven minutes last season with the addition of PitchCom.

If games are shortened by 21 minutes in the regular season, then based on last year’s pace, it would work out to an average time of 2:42. MLB games haven’t been completed that quickly since 1985 (2:39).