Defector is the website that was created when all of the talented people left Deadspin to form their own outlet.

The folks over there put together a graphic charting MLB win percentage and game length, and look at the Phillies’ spot:

According to Kathryn Xu, who wrote the article this graphic stems from, Phillies games are averaging three hours and 17 minutes this season, which is five minutes longer than the Yankees, who are second. Ranked 30th is Detroit with a 2:57 typical game length, so the variation from top to bottom is only 20 minutes, which isn’t much time if you think about it (though if you add 20 minutes cumulatively, it piles up). But on a game-to-game basis this is kind of like turnovers in the NBA. If Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons cut their turnovers by one each back in 2019 the Sixers would have moved up from the bottom ten into the top 15.

The real question, I guess, is why are Phillies games longer than other teams? On-base percentage is middle of the league. They get a lot of innings from their starters. Without diving too deep into it, we can probably assume that the struggling bullpen creates late jams, which slows down games on the back end. More pitching changes, etc. They’re also playing good competition and the games are close. Not many blowouts, but oftentimes slow and painful, like a root canal.

EDIT – Anthony did some research and found the following: