WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—It took 2 hours, 19 minutes for the Miami Marlins to beat the Houston Astros 4–3 in a spring training game Monday—a game so fast that Ryan Murphy, a lifelong Houston fan, found himself lingering in the ballpark for a while afterward.
“I’m a baseball fan,” said Murphy, wearing 2022 Astros World Series gear, “so if I stay here for four hours, for two hours, it doesn’t matter to me.”
Faced with criticism of dwindling cultural relevance and a laggardly product compared to other major sports, Major League Baseball introduced a set of new rules this year to speed up games and attract younger fans….