This might not be the time when you want to hear about MLB's length of game problem, but I started doing some research today on the Twins and now here we are. The numbers? They're ugly if you like a more crisply played baseball game.
Last year, the average nine-inning game took exactly three hours. MLB games actually had gotten six minutes faster between the all-time nine-inning high of 3:02 set in 2014 to the swifter 2:56 of 2015.
• This year, the average game has added five minutes and checks in at 3:05 for a standard nine-inning affair. Barring some sort of barrage of two-hour games, this year will set a new record for longest average game length.
• Twins games, though, are LONGER than the record-setting MLB pace. The average nine-inning Twins game this season has lasted a shade over 3 hours, 9 minutes.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
