For more examples, click here.

Line Drive Single

The batter hits a soft line drive that passes through the infield, but then dies before it can go much further, and hits grass/turf— either right in front of a fielder, or in a spot where said fielder has to do some jogging to cut the ball off before it gets past them. In this case, the batter will reach first base safely for a single¹, and that’s going to be that.

Very rarely, a batter in this scenario will ask themselves “but what if I didn’t stop at first?” and make the turn towards second². Sometimes this will work out for them, especially if they are fast and the fielders decide to take an ill-timed nap. But if the defense can get it together, they will throw to second and get the batted tagged out. In this case, the batter still gets credit for the single, but that’s it.