A Fly Ball Out

A ball that is hit in the air, and caught by a defender before it touches anything (that is not a fielder), is an out. That's pretty simple, right? Honestly, yes, but we are talking about baseball, so there are still going to be a couple of caveats and technicalities that will occasionally come into play. For more on that, check out the explainer linked in the sidebar.

But what about the runners? Well, upon seeing that a fly ball has been hit, each runner is going to go back to their base and tag up; a fly ball that’s hit deep enough can allow runners on third to score, which then gets filed into its own play called a "sacrifice fly." Other runners can also try to advance, though it's slightly more rare for runners on first to even try to advance to second, simply because second base is generally the closest base to any spot in the outfield. There are many factors that go into when runners will advance, and which base an outfielder will throw to once they have hauled in a fly ball.