Question about official scoring

[Curtis]

I ran into something a little weird and a little disconcerting tonight. My Fighters beat the Blue Wave 8-1 on nothing but singles, walks, stolen bases and bunts… including putting up a six spot in the top of the eight. (A big inning from small ball — hah!)

The scoring problem I'm having is with my starting pitcher, who pitched a complete game five hitter. In that eighth inning he twice came to bat with the bases loaded, and he perfectly executed two squeeze plays, resulting in two runs batted in, four runners advanced, and safely reaching base both times.

For this, his line read 0 for 3 with 2 rbi. The scorer (game) gave him credit for two sacrifice bunts, even though he reached. I don't get it. If the runner(s) on third had been out, or if plays had been made to second or third, I could see not crediting him with a hit, because he'd've reached on a fielder's choice. These were not fielder's choices, and not sacrifices. In reality, what he did was a bunt-and-run play, no different from a hit-and-run, except that the runner was on third.

You can't even say, "Well, he was trying to give himself up, but he was too good to make an out, so we'll score it based on his intent." That's just stupid. If a batter is trying to loft one for a sacrifice fly and accidently hits it out of the park, do you score it a sac fly? No, he gets credit for a homer, even if it was a mistake.

I just don't get it.

[Syt]

Going out on a limb, but could it be he reached the bases on error from the defense?

[TheKenoshaKid]

I think this could be what happened (from mlb rulebook):

10.08 Sacrifices

The official scorer shall:


(b) Score a sacrifice bunt when, before two are out, the fielders handle a bunted ball without error in an unsuccessful attempt to put out a preceding runner advancing one base, unless, an attempt to turn a bunt into a putout of a preceding runner fails, and in the judgment of the official scorer ordinary effort would not have put out the batter at first base, in which case the batter shall be credited with a one-base hit and not a sacrifice;

I think the reason he didn't get a hit was that the "scorer" believed that if the fielder had given "ordinary effort" to throw him out at first, the pitcher would have been out.

So in your sac-fly-turned-homerun example, there's no way the batter would be out, no matter what the fielder does. With this sac-bunt, the fielder took a gamble and tried to get the runner at home, but failed. So the pitcher gets a sac bunt because if the fielder would have made the "right" call, the scorer believed that your pitcher would have been out.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by Syt

Going out on a limb, but could it be he reached the bases on error from the defense?

He did not, though that was a good thought. The Kenosha Kid got it right, though I think the rule sucks. Thanks for finding the applicable rule, Kid.

Another oddity, though not one involved in scoring, was when one of my batters hit a drive down the left field line that was caught by the Blue Wave's second baseman. I checked the game log to be sure it wasn't just an inaccuracy in the play-by-play announcing, but the log agreed with the call. I have a hard time imagining that, but I suppose they may have had a shift on(?).

[THEOVELS]

That has happened to me in both X and 11, except it has been with my first baseman. I knew he was the team leader, but sometime I think he is just showing off!