Scoring Notation#

Baseball scoring notation is a shorthand for recording what happened during every at-bat. It’s compact, standardized (mostly), and once you learn it, you can reconstruct an entire game from a single sheet of paper. Or, in our case, from a single screen.

The Basics#

Every at-bat gets a notation that tells you the result. The notation system uses three main elements:

1. Fielder numbers (1-9) to identify who handled the ball
2. Letter codes for the type of play (F for fly, L for line drive, K for strikeout, etc.)
3. Suffixes for modifiers (DP for double play, U for unassisted)

If you don’t know the fielder numbers yet, read Fielder Position Numbers first — the notation won’t make sense without them.

Hits#

Hits are the simplest notation — just the type of hit:

No fielder numbers needed for the basic hit notation. The scorecard shows where the runner ended up through the diamond path (we’ll cover that in Reading the Mini Diamond).

Ground Outs#

Ground outs use the fielder numbers separated by dashes, describing the order the ball was handled:

The “U” suffix means unassisted — only one fielder was involved. This typically happens when the first baseman fields a grounder near the bag and steps on it himself.

Fly Outs, Line Outs, and Foul Outs#

These use a letter prefix plus the fielder who caught it:

• F = fly ball (arcing trajectory)
• L = line drive (hard, flat trajectory)
• FF = foul fly (caught in foul territory)

Strikeouts#

Baseball has a special tradition here: the letter K for strikeout.

The “looking” strikeout is traditionally written as a backwards K on paper scorecards — the letter K mirrored horizontally. BaseballScorer renders this the same way, flipping the K in the display. You’ll see this all over ballparks too, on those K-count signs fans hang from the upper deck.

Walks and Hit By Pitch#

Errors#

The “E” plus the fielder number who committed the error. The batter reaches base, but it’s not counted as a hit — the official scorer decided the fielder should have made the play.

Double Plays#

Any out notation can be followed by DP to indicate a double play:

The most common double play in baseball is the 6-4-3 — grounder to short, flip to second for the force, relay to first for the second out. You’ll score this one a lot.

Sacrifices#

A sacrifice bunt is an intentional out where the batter bunts to advance a runner. A sacrifice fly is a fly out deep enough that a runner on third can tag up and score. Neither counts as an official at-bat in the batter’s statistics.

Fielder’s Choice#

The batter reaches first, but only because the defense chose to get a different runner out. It’s not a hit.

Other Notations#

Color Coding#

On paper, all of this is black ink. In BaseballScorer, notation is color-coded to help you scan results at a glance:

This means you can glance at a column of completed at-bats and immediately see the hits (green), strikeouts (red), and outs (neutral) without reading the notation.

The Complete Table#

For quick reference, here’s every notation in one place: