Baseball’s regular season has the pace-of-play problem with which we’re all familiar: Many of the 2,430 games take on dead time until they are boring, lulling. It’s a good dish, watered down until you don’t love it as much.

The postseason’s pace-of-play problem is different. It’s not that games get boring, since a World Series game is almost always tense and urgent, and if you’re on a cross-country flight with cable TV access you will enjoy every moment of it. But most people aren’t on cross-country flights. Most people have full lives, and they have to squeeze in their baseball indulgences among other obligations, like family, and sleep, and moving at least once every four hours to avoid nerve damage. These postseason games are thrilling, but they are so lengthy that they become impractical for many otherwise enthusiastic customers—a good dish that goes cold before it can be finished.

Nearly every game in this World Series was long, even by World Series standards. Of the 13 longest nine-inning World Series games this decade, six came this year. Game 3, a 4-1 Houston victory, took 4 hours, 3 minutes

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In some ways, the most discouraging part of the pace of these games is how well disguised the slowness is. It’s not that the games are slow for reasons that are anomalous (like 15-14 slugfests) or that could be easily legislated away (like limiting constant mound visits by catchers, which have been sharply curtailed since the 2017 postseason) or that would be delightful (very good dogs running onto the field to frolic). Rather, they’re slow because ... well, why are they slow?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Snacking on chicken at a picnic table near section 402, decked out in his curly W cap and pullover, Bob Batwinis hoped to see a lot at Game 4 of the World Series.

Exciting plays.

A Washington win.

And maybe, just maybe, on this evening at Nationals Park, the final out sometime before midnight.

NEW YORK (AP) — The average time of a nine-inning game reached a record length in the major leagues this season.

Major League Baseball said Sunday the final figure for this season was 3 hours, 5 minutes, 35 seconds. That topped the 3:05:11 in 2017.

CLOCKED

Big league bullpens are full this month, boosted by September call-ups, and a plethora of pitching changes is contributing to longer and longer games.

The Brewers beat Miami 8-3 Monday night in a matchup that took 4 hours, 8 minutes. The game featured 15 pitchers who combined for 14 walks.

On Sunday, the Phillies topped the Mets 10-7 in 4:29 — one minute from matching the longest nine-inning NL game. Each team used eight pitchers and the clubs used up all 16 dozen baseballs that were prepped pregame, forcing another couple dozen to be rubbed up and put in play.