Inning in baseball , softball and similar games is the period of a game divided into two parts ( frames ): “top” ( English top half ) and “bottom” ( English bottom half ), during which one team plays on the defensive and the other on the offensive. In each frame, the attack team plays up to 3 outs . A full game usually consists of 9 innings, but can be shortened due to bad weather or extended if the run score is equal to the end of the 9th inning.
Game Process
Each half of the inning begins with the team of the judge “Play” ( eng. “Play” ) or “Play ball” ( eng. “Play ball” ). Full inning consists of 6 outs, 3 for each team. In Major League Baseball ( English MLB ) and in many other leagues, the game lasts up to 9 innings. The guest team beats at the top of the inning ( English top of the inning ), that is, the number of runs is displayed at the top of the scoreboard. In turn, the hosts play an attack in the lower part of the inning ( English bottom of the inning ), and the gap between the upper and lower parts of the inning is called the middle of the inning ( English middle of the inning ). If the hosts lead in the middle of the last scheduled inning or score in the bottom of the same inning, the game automatically ends with a home team victory.
In many leagues, if the score is equal after the last scheduled inning, the game goes into additional innings until the inning ends with a victory for one of the teams. However, in Japanese baseball, the game ends by the 12th inning with an equal score, but in the largest Japanese league - Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) , in the post-season period the game ends after the 15th inning. During the 2011–2012 NPB season the game ended in a draw, as the duration of the match reached 3 hours and 30 minutes with an equal score. If the home team breaks ahead during additional innings, the game and inning will end immediately, despite the number of outs. A similar situation is called “walk-off” ( English walk-off ). However, the guest team cannot get a “walk-out” victory in additional innings, unlike hockey , where the team that scores the most points in extra time wins regardless of whether the team is the guests or the hosts.
The number of innings can be reduced due to weather conditions (rain, etc.). Such a game is declared a “ rain out” . The judge before the “Rain Out” announces a break during which the judges decide whether to continue the game. If the outcome is positive, the game is delayed until the rain ends. If the weather does not allow the game to continue, the referee announces a “rain out” and the game is suspended until the next day. A match can also be replayed at another time, but under certain circumstances a shortened game can be considered officially completed, and the team that was ahead in terms of the number of runs will be considered the winner.
Professional baseball games, like college baseball games, consist of nine innings. High School games , a softball college, and some doubleheaders, a college and a Minor League, are seven innings. Baseball games of the Little League ( English Little League ) consist of six innings, but can be reduced in case of significant superiority in runs of one team over another.
See also
- Baseball
- Baseball terminology