 Let's look at an example of how a baseball game would actually play out. If you've been following my intro to baseball playlist I've been explaining a lot of different concepts Individually and sometimes I know it can be tough to understand how they all work together So let's try to take it step by step here and see how a baseball game would actually flow One of the first things you'll notice when you turn a baseball game on on television or the internet is that you'll have some Sort of scoreboard on the screen which is convenient because you can turn on a game and regardless of where things are In the game you can tell what that a matter of seconds everything that's going on And if you go to a game in person these things will probably be on the scoreboard there, too They just might look a little different This will include a few things first is the teams so the visiting teams listed first and the home team second just like All American sports are it will also say which inning it is So we'll start with first inning and it'll either say if it's the top or the bottom of the inning Or it'll have an arrow to that effect It'll also have the count which again is how many balls there are and how many strikes there are the number of outs Which may also be in dots and then they'll have a diagram showing which bases have runners on them Also within the last few years most broadcasts have started to include how many pitches a pitcher has thrown But we're gonna leave that out for now Our purple team being the home team will start in the field first both teams will have their batting orders So whoever the first hitter is on yellow team will come up to bat this being the beginning of the game He starts out with no outs no count nobody on base So the pitcher will throw his first pitch and we'll say this is ball one again A ball is a pitch that is not in the strike zone and the batter doesn't swing at which means the count is now one and Oh, so the catcher would then throw the ball back to the pitcher and he would throw his second pitch Let's say the batter swings and misses now the count is one and one one ball one strike Again the catcher would throw the ball back to the pitcher and let's say now the batter hits the next pitch into right field He'll run to first base and this is a single the right fielder will pick the ball up He'll throw the ball back into the second baseman who will throw it back to the pitcher So our scoreboard will now add a little marker to show that there is now a runner on first base And the count will reset back to oh and oh for the second batter So the pitcher throws his first pitch to the second batter and he's gonna hit it to the third baseman a ground ball Who will field the ball and then throw the ball to the second baseman who is now covering second base Remember, there's now a force out at second base So now that the second baseman has caught the ball and stepped on the base the runner who was on first base is now out We have our first out on the scoreboard and our batter is safe at first base So our little first base icon stays there down on the scoreboard The second baseman will throw the ball back to the pitcher and the third batter comes up Let's see. He takes the first pitch meaning he doesn't swing and it's called strike one So now it's on one The next pitch he hits the ball off of the wall And the runner who started on first base runs to third and then the batter will run to second base for a double So our fourth batter comes up And sometimes the fourth batter is called the cleanup hitter because he uses a broom handle to hit instead of a bat That's not really true So let's say with his bat he hits the ball a fly ball to right field And both runners can see from where it's going that it's probably going to be caught by the right fielder So they stand on their respective bases and as soon as the ball is caught they tag up and run Potentially the right fielder could throw either one of them out But these guys are both very fast and so he'll just throw back into the infield So lots of things happen here. The first thing is that we have our hitter is out That's the second out of the inning our runner on second base runs to third And a runner on third base has just tagged up And ran home to step on home plate and score run And therefore we would classify this not as a fly out for the batter, but as a sacrifice fly One thing to note is that as we saw there the number of things that can happen and therefore the potential for crazy plays is increased As the number of runners on base increases Our next hitter comes up to bat and he hits a foul ball. This is strike one Count as 0 and 1. Let's say he takes the second pitch outside Which means it's off the plate on the opposite side of the hitter An inside pitch on the other hand would be thrown between the hitter and home plate Anyway, it's now one ball and one strike and the batter hits the next pitch Over the fence into the stands for our home run The runner on third base will draw home and score And the batter will run all the way around the bases and come around to score a second run on the play So now it's three to nothing still two outs Our next hitter comes up and he hits a ground ball to the shortstop who throws to the first baseman for the out The third out of the top of the first inning thus concluding this half inning There would then be a commercial break and when that's over the yellow team will be in the field playing defense The purple team will come up to bat in the bottom of the inning Play nine of those innings and you have yourself a baseball game