What a drag it is ... watching White Sox play marathon games

It sure was good seeing Mark Buehrle back on the South Side in late June, for multiple reasons.

First, Buehrle deserved to have his uniform No. 56 retired by the Chicago White Sox after spending 12 seasons in the starting rotation and winning 161 games, the sixth most in franchise history.

Buehrle also logged 200 or more innings in each of his 11 full seasons with the Sox, he pitched a perfect game, a no-hitter and was a key cog on the 2005 World Series championship team.

His best qualities?

Buehrle always worked fast, never shook off his catcher and consistently threw strikes.

As a result, games he pitched had an entertaining flow, and the workhorse left-hander had 9 starts with the White Sox that ran less than 2 hours.

Times have changed with this year's Sox team, for the worse.

Thanks in part to a patchwork rotation and a bullpen that has been bogged down by injuries and a lack of experience, White Sox games have been a literal drag over the first half.

Heading into Saturday night's game at Colorado, the Sox played 13 straight games that lasted 3 hours or more.

In June, 22 of the White Sox's 27 games were 3 hours-plus, including a 4-hour, 7-minute snoozer at Detroit.

Buehrle was asked about the slow pace of play before having his number retired at Guaranteed Rate Field on June 24.

"Everybody tells me they were so happy when I pitched for a quick game," Buehrle said. "But every time I was on the bench in between my starts, it was a 3-, 3 ½-hour game and it wasn't very much fun. I think some of these games do get too long. Pitchers take their time, hitters get out of the box. I don't get all that but that's just the way I worked. I just grabbed the ball and went."

With the Sox's future rotation still developing in the minor leagues, this season has featured a steady diet of struggling starters such as Mike Pelfrey, Derek Holland, James Shields, Miguel Gonzalez, Dylan Covey and David Holmberg.

Jose Quintana has also labored, and that's why the White Sox ranked last in the American League with 29 quality starts (in 85 games) heading into the all-star break.

A quality start is awarded to a pitcher that goes at least 6 innings and allows 3 runs or less. The inability of the Sox's rotation to go deep into games has forced manager Rick Renteria to overwork the bullpen, which slows things down.

Walks also put a drag on games, and the White Sox were second in the American League with 196 through Friday's play.

In the rotation and the bullpen, the tempo of Sox pitchers has been slow, slower and slowest, but there's not much Renteria can do.

"I'd be hard-pressed to tell you that I'm going to force a pitcher that works in a particular style or particular tempo to speed it up," Renteria said. "There are guys that we tell to speed it up. We say, 'Hey, you know what? Let's see if we can speed the tempo a little.' But for the most part, they do what they do.

"I think that most pitching coaches do ask pitchers to kind of have an idea and be able to toe that rubber and work as quickly as they comfortably can. I know everybody in the field appreciates when a pitcher does do that."

Before the season, major-league baseball implemented a "no-pitch" intentional walk to speed up games, but that's like putting a Band-Aid on a compound fracture.

The White Sox are playing long games this season, but so are the other 29 major-league teams thanks to elevated walk and strikeout totals, endless mound visits and video replays.

"It has been longer," Sox third baseman Todd Frazier said. "We feel it, whether you're a rookie or a veteran guy. I'll be out there and be like, 'Man this game is just taking forever,' and the umpire will start laughing. But what else can you do besides putting a clock on everything? That would just be a pain in the butt. I like how we have two minutes between innings. That's great.

"You put a clock on a pitcher, next thing you know, there are certain guys that take 30 seconds, certain guys that take 15, and it ruins everything. We have 30 seconds to get in the box. Some guys take longer, and eventually you're going to get fined. You get 10 notes in the mail or something that say next time you'll get fined. I don't know, some guys have the money and don't care. It just depends who we're talking about."

A timely issue

According to stats compiled at baseball-reference.com, the average time of MLB games has increased by 5 minutes this season, and by 14 minutes from 10 years ago.

Year: Games Time

2017: 1296 3:09

2016: 2428 3:04

2015: 2429 3:00

2014: 2430 3:07

2013: 2431 3:04

2012: 2430 3:00

2011: 2429 2:56

2010: 2430 2:54

2009: 2430 2:55

2008: 2428 2:55