MLB
baseball rules.
Before the jargon, the actual structure: how runs happen, how long you're committing to, and what happens when it's close. Six questions, plain answers.
How is baseball scored?
A team scores a run every time one of its baserunners safely touches all four bases, in order, and crosses home plate. It doesn't matter if that happens on one big swing or four separate small ones. Whoever has more runs when the game ends wins.
How long is a baseball game?
A regulation game is nine innings, and each inning has a top half (the visiting team bats) and a bottom half (the home team bats). A half-inning ends once the defense records three outs. Unlike most sports, there's no game clock running down.
Why doesn't baseball have a clock?
Baseball ends when 27 outs have been recorded (nine innings times three outs), not when time runs out. That's why a game can run anywhere from a brisk two hours to well past four, depending on how many pitches get thrown. There's no clock to watch, only outs.
Ballbot explains this stuff live, mid-game, in your group chat.
Save my seat →What happens if a baseball game is tied?
If the score is still tied after nine innings, the teams keep playing extra innings until someone's ahead at the end of a full inning. In MLB regular-season play, each extra half-inning starts with a runner already placed on second base, a rule meant to speed things up and create scoring chances sooner. It doesn't apply in the postseason, where extra innings play out the traditional way.
How does a batter or baserunner get out?
A batter strikes out after three strikes (balls and strikes together make up “the count”), or is out if a defender catches a batted ball before it touches the ground. Runners can also be tagged or thrown out while running the bases. Three outs and a team's turn at bat is over.
How do the MLB playoffs work?
The postseason is a series of elimination rounds, each one a best-of-a-set-number-of- games series that gets longer the further teams advance. It all builds to the World Series, a best-of-seven between the two league champions.
Other sports
Want the jargon too? The baseball glossarycovers the terms you'll hear once you already know how the game works.
Want Ballbot in your pocket?
Hail Mary explains exactly this stuff live during the game, in your group chat. iOS, summer 2026.
Save me a seat →