In 2015, both Major League Baseball, Double-A and Triple-A minor league baseball used pitch clocks. These were used to ensure that pitchers delivered their pitches within 20 seconds. If the pitcher failed to pitch the ball in that 20-second time, a ball was awarded to the batter as a punishment. The pitch clock is effectively there to encourage pitchers to show some urgency and move the game along and it is said that they have reduced the length of a game by 12 minutes.