If a batter has two strikes and swings and misses the ball for the third strike, it is recorded as a strikeout.
It is entered as “K”.
If the batter foul tips the third strike and the catcher holds onto the ball without it touching the ground it is also considered a swinging strike out, entered with a “K”.
If a batter bunts the ball foul on the third strike , that too is considered a strikeout and noted with the letter “K”.
If the batter does not swing at the third pitch and it is called a strike by the umpire, it is a strikeout “looking”.
A distinction is made in the scorebook for a “Strike Out Looking”.
It is written as a backward “K”.
A fly ball caught outside of fair territory is referred to as Foul Fly out. It is entered with the letters “FF” followed by the defensive number of the player who caught the ball.
The example here illustrates a Foul Fly ball caught by the First Baseman. The dash (-) between the FF and the 3 is optional
A fly ball out occurs when a batter hits the ball in the air and it’s caught before it hits the ground. It is recorded in the score book using the letter “F” followed by the defensive position number of the player who made the catch. Some folks distinguish a fly ball caught in the infield as a Pop Out. On this site, only Fly Out will be used.
In this illustration, Carter led off the inning and hit a fly ball out to center field.
It is entered as an “F8″ where “F” represents Fly Out and “8″ represents the center fielder.
The number “1” with a circle around it is used to note the first out of the inning.
A Force Out occurs when a runner is forced to vacate the base he is on because the runner or batter behind him has no means of retreat. Another way of putting it is if there was a runner on first base and the batter hits a ground ball; the batter has no choice but to run to first base. And that means the runner on first can’t stay there - he has no recourse but to try to advance to second base.
In the illustration to the right Jackson led off the inning with a base hit to left field on a 1 ball, 0 strike count.
Duncan hits a ground ball on an “0-2 pitch” to the second baseman, who flips to the shortstop covering second base for the “force out”
The Force Out is recorded in the batter’s cell as a FO 4-6 where “FO” represents Force Out, “4” represents the second baseman who caught the ground ball and “6” represents the shortstop who caught the throw and stepped on the bag for the first out.
In the runner’s cell (Jackson) the number “1” with a circle around it is used to note the first out of the inning.
A Fielder’s Choice occurs when a fielder has the chance to throw out a base runner or the batter but chooses to try to get another base runner out. The end result is that the batter reaches first base safely due to the fielder choosing to try to get an out on a base runner.
In the illustration to the right, Odom led off the inning with a double. The next batter, Holmes, hit a ground ball to the short stop who, instead of throwing the ball to first base to get the batter out, threw the ball to the third baseman, who tagged the runner out.
The Fielder’s Choice is recorded in the batter’s cell as an FC 6-5 where “FC” represents Fielder’s Choice, “6″ represents the shortstop who caught the ground ball and “5″ represents the third baseman who caught the throw and tagged out the runner. Also, a line is drawn from home plate to first base (on the diamond) to show the batter reached first base safely
In the runner’s cell (Odom) the number “1″ with a circle around it is used to note the first out of the inning.
Most ground ball outs involve more than one defensive player. The out is entered by recording each defensive player in the sequential order in which they handled the ball.
The outs are entered into the hitter’s cell for the inning in which they batted. The out is recorded using the Defensive Position Numbers of the fielders involved.
T
he scorekeeping entry to the right illustrates the ground ball out of the First Baseman, Jones in the First Inning. He hit a ground ball to the third baseman who caught it and threw the ball to the first baseman for the first out of the inning.
It is recorded in the scorebook as a “5-3″ ground out; where “5″ represents the third baseman catching the ground ball and “3″ represents the first baseman catching the throw from the third baseman for the out (notice the sequence of the play is repeated in the scoring).
The number “1″ with a circle around it is used to help keep track of the number of outs in an inning. This is a good habit to get into!
The boxes in the upper left hand corner of each cell represents balls and strikes. You can keep track of the batter’s count and count the number of pitchers by entering a dot after each pitch. The top three squares are to track balls, the bottom two for strikes. The ball that is hit in play is not recorded.
Scoring Pitches is discussed elsewhere on this site.
When only one defensive player is involved in an out, it is referred to as an “unassisted” out.
In the example to the right, the second batter of the inning, Adams, hit a ground ball to the first baseman on a (1 ball 0 strikes count). The first baseman also tagged first base for the second out in the inning.
This unassisted out is recorded with the number “3″, which represents the first baseman, followed by a “U” representing “Unassisted”.
Notice the “2″ circled in the upper right hand corner of Adams’ cell. It represents the second out of the inning.
When the third out is recorded a diagonal line is drawn under the player making the third in the inning.
The first two outs of an inning are recorded by entering the out number in the upper right hand corner of the cell of the players who are out.
There are occasions when the batter up does not make the final out in an inning. This can only occur when there are runners on base.
In this situation the third out can be recorded in the cell of the player who was thrown out.
NOTE: If the inning ends because a runner is thrown out stealing, the player currently at bat leads off the next inning.
