Baseball, by the Rules

Intro

Play Ball!

Introduction

Play Ball!

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Strikeout

If the count has two strikes when a pitch comes in, and that pitch winds up as a strike, the result is a strikeout. This is true no matter how the strike was recorded. If the batter did not swing, it's called a “strikeout looking.” If they did swing, it's called a “strikeout swinging”; this includes strikeouts on foul tips. A strikeout collected on a foul bunt is its own category, but it doesn’t have a special name1. Same with a strikeout that is awarded as the result of an automatic strike— that is, a strike called because the batter violated the pitch timer policy.

As the term "strike out" might imply, a batter who strikes out is, in fact, out. But of course, there's an exception: if the pitch was not caught cleanly; this opens you up to the possibility of a “wild pitch” coming into play, and when there are runners on, this can mean those runners getting free bases. It can also mean that the batter gets to take first base, even though they just struck out, via one of baseball's weirder rules. However, if the catcher catches the pitch cleanly, then the batter is out, and unless that was the third out, the inning continues.

Copyright 2026, Tony Forbes

Disclaimer

Acknowledgements

© 2026, Tony Forbes

Disclaimer

Acknowledgements