Mark Buehrle, one of baseball’s fastest workers on the mound. (USA TODAY Sports Images)

Baseball games are getting longer. In 2010, games lasted on average about two hours and 55 minutes, according to Baseball Prospectus. The average game has increased steadily in length every season since, and contests in 2014 have averaged about 3:08.

And keep in mind: That same span has seen a steady drop in run scoring, so the spike in length of games has nothing to do with more scoring — as it did in the late 1990s. And though the rate of pitches per plate appearance has increased with improved understanding of the value of plate discipline, it has held pretty steady over the last five seasons.

Though the increasing length of games is unlikely to bring about the long-ballyhooed death of baseball, few would argue it’s good for the sport. And it’s particularly frustrating, because there’s a very easy, built-in solution to the issue: Enforcing rules that are already in place.

Check this out: Rule 8.04 in Major League Baseball’s rulebook says, “When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball. Each time the pitcher delays the game by violating this rule, the umpire shall call “Ball.””

That almost never happens. And as the length of games has increased, so has the length of time pitchers stand on the mound holding the ball. Fangraphs tracks “Pace,” a pitcher’s average time between pitches, in seconds. In 2010, pitchers averaged 21.5 seconds between pitches. The number has increased every season since, and 2014 pitchers average 23 seconds between pitches.

Daisuke Matsuzaka has averaged 25.2 seconds between pitches in his career. (USA TODAY Sports Images)

An extra 1.5 seconds between pitches don’t sound like much, but add them all up over the 280-300 pitches thrown per game and you’re looking at a pretty significant chunk of that increased time.

There’s a lot more to it, of course: Batters take their time, as well, stepping out of the box between pitches and adjusting every piece of equipment they have. That, too, is something the league has the right to crack down on.

Mid-inning pitching changes and video replay challenges — once expected to speed up games by precluding arguments — have also lengthened contests. But those trends will be harder to counter without modifying the rules of the game.

But for now, the immediate and obvious solution to baseball’s slowing tempo is to enforce the rule that says pitchers have 12 seconds to make a pitch when no one’s on base. That’s it. No need for drastic measures like shortening the game to seven innings. Simply making pitchers work a bit faster will curtail games to a more reasonable length and ensure that a larger portion of the baseball game actually consists of game action.