Passed ball

Passed ball

In baseball, a catcher is charged with a passed ball when he fails to hold or control a legally pitched ball that, with ordinary effort, should have been maintained under his control. When, as a result of this loss of control, the batter or the runner(s) on base advance, the catcher is thereby charged. A runner who advances due to a passed ball is not credited with a stolen base unless he breaks for the base before the pitcher begins his delivery.

A passed ball may be scored when a runner on first, second, or third base reaches the next base on a bobble or missed catch, or when the batter-runner reaches first base on an uncaught strike three ("see also" Strikeout).

A closely related statistic is the wild pitch. As with many baseball statistics, whether a pitch that gets away from a catcher is a passed ball or wild pitch is at the discretion of the official scorer. Typically, pitches that are deemed to be ordinarily caught by the catcher, but are not, are ruled passed balls, while pitches that get by the catcher that are thought to have required extraordinary effort by the catcher in order to stop them are wild pitches. If the pitch was so low as to touch the ground, or so high that the catcher has to jump to get to it, or so wide that the catcher has to lunge for it, it is usually then considered a wild pitch and not a passed ball.

A scored run due to a passed ball is not recorded as an earned run.

Passed balls and wild pitches are considered to be part of the act of pitching rather than fielding. Thus they are kept as separate statistics and are not recorded as errors.

There tends to be a higher incidence of passed balls when a knuckleballer is pitching. The physics that make a knuckleball so difficult to hit make it equally difficult to catch. While teams with a knuckleballer on their pitching staff often employ a special "knuckleball catcher" who is equipped with a knuckleball mitt, similar to a first baseman's glove, it is still extremely difficult to catch.

External links

* [http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2007/10_the_official_scorer.pdf Baseball Rules] See section 10.13


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • passed ball — passed′ ball′ n. spo a pitched baseball that the catcher can reasonably be expected to catch but misses Compare wild pitch • Etymology: 1860–65 …   From formal English to slang

  • passed ball — ☆ passed ball n. Baseball a misplay by the catcher in which a pitch that could be caught or controlled is missed and a base runner advances to another base as a result: cf. WILD PITCH …   English World dictionary

  • passed ball — noun a pitch that the catcher should have caught but did not; allows a base runner to advance a base • Hypernyms: ↑pitch, ↑delivery * * * noun Etymology: from past participle of pass (I) : a pitched ball not hit by the batter that passes the… …   Useful english dictionary

  • passed ball — {n.} A pitched baseball missed by the catcher when he should have been able to catch it. * /The batter singled and went to second on a passed ball./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • passed ball — {n.} A pitched baseball missed by the catcher when he should have been able to catch it. * /The batter singled and went to second on a passed ball./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • passed ball — noun A play where the catcher fails to stop a normally playable pitch and a runner advances. Jones let a passed ball get behind him …   Wiktionary

  • passed\ ball — noun A pitched baseball missed by the catcher when he should have been able to catch it. The batter singled and went to second on a passed ball …   Словарь американских идиом

  • passed ball — Baseball. a pitched ball that the catcher can reasonably be expected to catch but misses, resulting in a base runner s or runners advancing one or more bases or in the batter s reaching first base safely. Cf. wild pitch. [1860 65, Amer.] * * * …   Universalium

  • passed ball — noun Date: 1861 a baseball pitch not hit by the batter that passes the catcher when it should have been caught and allows a base runner to advance compare wild pitch …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • ball — See: BASE ON BALLS, CARRY THE BALL, FLY BALL, FOUL BALL, GET THE BALL ROLLING, SET THE BALL ROLLING, START THE BALL ROLLING, GOPHER BALL, GROUND BALL, HAVE A HALL, HAVE SOMETHING ON THE BALL, JUMP BALL, KEEP THE BALL. ROLLING, LONG BALL, ON THE… …   Dictionary of American idioms

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