Germán Márquez of the Colorado Rockies waits for the return throw from his catcher, after a pitch to Tyler Soderstrom of the Sacramento Athletics.
The Plate Appearance Continues
With runners on base, the pitch timer generally restarts when the ball is thrown back to the pitcher, tthough the umpire might not restart the timer right away on certain foul balls1. The clock counts down from 18 seconds. The batter must be back in the box and ready to swing by the 8 second mark, and the pitcher must go back into motion before time runs out.