MLB batting average down 7 pct. points to .242 in 1st 2 weeks, game time up 2 minutes to 2:39

NEW YORK (AP) — The major league batting average dropped seven percentage points to .242 in the first two weeks of the season, while the average time of a nine-inning game rose two minutes to 2:39 in the second season of the pitch clock.

Major League Baseball implemented restrictions on defensive shifts last year, when the batting average rose to .249 in the first 14 days from .230 the comparable period in 2022 and .235 in 2021. Last year’s final average of .248 was up from .243 in 2022 and .244 in 2021 — it had been in the .250s for most of the decade in the 2010s and the .260s in the early 2000s.

The average rises during the course of the season as the weather warms.

“No question it’s getting harder to hit,'" Kansas City outfielder Hunter Renfroe said Friday. “I think these pitchers are getting better and better every single year. You’ve got younger and younger arms coming up that people have less and less history against. And I think it’s one those things where it’s going to continue to evolve, and the hitters are going to evolve, as well. But to this point, yeah, it’s a lot harder to hit now than it ever has been, there’s no question about it.”