Sacrifice Fly

The batter hits a fly ball that drifts over the outfield. An outfielder settles underneath the ball to make the catch, while the runner at third goes back to the base. As soon as the ball is caught, the defender immediately throws the ball back toward the plate, while the runner on third takes off. Will the ball get there first, or the runner? And if the ball gets there, can the catcher make the tag in time? If the runner scores, the play goes as a sacrifice fly; the batter has sacrified their at-bat to allow the runner to score. If the runner does not score, it's just a standard fly out into a double play.

Not all sacrifice flies result in close plays at the plate; many times, the defense doesn't throw to the plate at all, simply because the ball was hit too deep to have a realistic shot a the runner. On those occasions where the defense does make the play, it's always a tag play, so the defense is trying to tag the runner before that runner touches the plate. The tagging fielder has to retain the ball through the process of the tag; if they drop the ball, or it gets knocked loose somehow, the tag won’t count. Unlike the other bases, the runner doesn’t have to stop once they reach home plate; they can slide past home, and as long as they’ve actually touched, they’re safe. They can double-back to touch home if they need to (and as long as they can avoid the tag). Similarly, if the runner doesn’t touch home and also the fielder misses the tag, both parties can Looney Tunes their way around until a final call can be made.

But— with the ball/runner/fielder all converging at the same place at the same time, MLB has implemented some additional rules designed to prevent nasty collisions¹. These rules have at least slightly reduced the number of wrecks at the plate, but I’d be lying if I said they were clear, and that lack of clarity has led to an awful lot of arguing (and calls being overturned on replay) in the ensuing years.

Both the runner and fielder have a responsibility to avoid unnecessary collisions. For the purposes of the rest of this section, we’ll say that the fielder is the catcher, though it doesn’t have to be. Now, a runner headed for home plate already has a fairly wide swath of territory they can use to travel to the plate; they don’t have to stay within the dirt base path, and instead many will take a curved path that takes them into foul territory². And as long as they don’t suddenly juke towards the catcher as they near the plate, that’s all well and good. If they do deviate towards the catcher, they can be called out for interference. Similarly, if the runner does collide with the fielder, and the umpire judges that the runner had a path to slide without said collision, the runner can be called out.

The fielder, meanwhile, is not allowed to completely block the path to the plate unless they have possession of the ball, or if they’re trying to catch the ball as it’s thrown in. So, as they’re waiting for a throw, they should, in theory, give the runner a lane to use to get to the plate. It doesn’t necessarily be a generous lane, mind you, but it does need to exist, and it’s up to the runner how creatively they’re going to use it. Sometimes, it can be pretty darn creative. If the umpire judges that the catcher is blocking the plate illegally, then they can call the runner safe. However, if the catcher isn’t actively hindering the runner, or if the umpire judges that the runner would have been out even if the catcher had not blocked the plate, they can still call the runner out.

If interference is called on either the runner or the catcher, then the out/run is counted, and the ball immediately becomes dead. Any other runners are sent back to the last base they touched. And unless the call was the most obvious call in the history of umpiring, the manager whose team just got shafted is almost certainly going to come out to argue— or to call for a replay.

Of course, if you recall what we said up at the top: because this is a sacrifice fly, the runner is going to be called safe. If the runner is out here, it's a double play. After the play, however, the ball stays live, and the catcher can attempt to throw out other baserunners who might be trying to take an extra base.