Pitcher Gavin Williams, of the Cleveland Guardian, waits for a return throw from his first baseman, after attempting a pickoff on baserunner George Springer, of the Toronto Blue Jays.

A Plate Appearance Continues

After a disruption in a plate appearance— and by that, we mean something like a timeout, disengagement, mound visit, pitch timer violation, stolen base attempt, wild pitch, etc.— then the plate appearance will resume in the same state that it was in before the pause, with the same count, number of outs, and so forth.

The pitch timer, though, will reset. With runners on base, the pitch timer counts down from 18 seconds. The batter must be in the batter’s box and ready to swing with at least 8 seconds left on the clock. If not, the umpire calls an automatic strike. Similarly, the pitcher must start their pitching motion before the clock runs out. If the runners have moved up between pitches, then the pitcher now gets a new set of disengagements to use, and they can now decide whether or not they want to use them.