Baserunning#

A batter’s at-bat ends with a single mark in a single cell, but a runner’s journey around the bases can span several batters and several plays. A man singles, steals second, advances to third on a ground out, and scores on a sacrifice fly — that’s four separate events, recorded across four different cells, all tracking the same runner. Keeping that movement straight is what separates a scorecard that merely lists results from one that tells the whole story of the inning.

This section covers the ways a runner moves that aren’t tied to the batter putting the ball in play.

Advancing on the basepaths. Stolen Bases covers the steal and the caught stealing — how to mark the advance, how to record the out when the throw beats the runner, and where the credit and blame go. This is the most common baserunning event you’ll score, and the notation is worth getting comfortable with early.

Advancing on the battery’s mistakes. When a pitch gets away, runners move. Wild Pitches and Passed Balls explains the difference between the two — one charged to the pitcher, one to the catcher — and how to record the runner advances that result, along with the balk, where the pitcher’s illegal motion awards every runner a base.

Advancing on a batted ball without a hit. Tag Ups covers the runner who waits on his base for a fly ball to be caught, then advances after the catch — the sacrifice fly is the classic case, but tag-ups happen on ordinary fly outs too, and the runner’s movement still has to be drawn.

The runner who starts on base. The Ghost Runner explains the extra-innings rule that places a runner on second base to start each half-inning — a recent addition to the game that has its own small notation wrinkle, since that runner reached base without doing anything at the plate.

The thread running through all of it: every base a runner takes gets drawn on the little diamond inside his at-bat cell, with a note of how he advanced. Do that consistently and anyone reading your card can replay the inning exactly.