Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to break a tie.
Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven innings; in Little League Baseball, six), each of which is divided into halves: the visiting team bats first, after which the home team takes its turn at bat. However, if the score remains tied at the end of the regulation number of complete innings, the rules provide that "play shall continue until
The visiting team has scored more total runs than the home team at the end of a completed inning, or The home team scores the winning run in an uncompleted inning."
(Since the home team bats second, condition (2) does not allow the visiting team to score more runs before the end of the inning, unless the game is called before the inning ends).
Most of the rules of the game, including the batting order, availability of substitute players and pitchers, etc., remain intact in extra innings, although occasionally leagues and tournaments will place runners on base to start extra innings in order to speed up the game. Managers must display caution to avoid exhausting all their substitute players during regular innings, in case the game reaches extensive extra innings. The rules call for a forfeiture if a team is unable to field a full team of nine players.
Home-field advantage In Major League Baseball, home teams won about 52% of extra-inning games from 1957 to 2007. During this same time period, home teams have won about 54% of all baseball games. So while the home team has some advantage in extra-inning games, this advantage is less noticeable than the initial home-field advantage. Home teams tend to have the greatest advantage in run-scoring during the first 3 innings.
For the visiting team to win, it must score as many runs as possible in the first (or "top") half of the inning and then prevent the home team from tying or taking the lead in the second (or "bottom") half. Because it bats in the bottom half of an inning, a home team wins the game by taking the lead at any point in the final inning. Normally in such a situation, the moment the winning run scores for whatever reason (base hit, sacrifice, wild pitch), the game immediately ends and no other runs are allowed. The term for winning in this scenario is a "walk-off" win (as everyone can walk off the field as soon as the winning run is scored). The exception is if the winning hit is a walk-off home run; all runners on base and the batter must circle the bases on a home run, provided that they round them all correctly, so all their runs count for the final score.Baseball Explained by Phillip Mahony, McFarland Books, 2014. See www.baseballexplained.com Each extra inning simply repeats this scenario. This is in contrast to the analogous penalty shootout used in ice hockey or association football, where shootout goals are counted separately and only one goal is awarded to the winner (hockey), or the game is recorded as a draw and the team winning the shootout is noted separately (association football); however, the same procedure of counting runs as if they were scored in regulation is like the overtime procedures in American football, Canadian football and basketball.
Variants
Asia The East Asian professional leagues, NPB, and CPBL have a 12-inning limit before the game is declared a draw. Starting in 2025, the KBO will have an 11-inning limit on single games and the second game in a doubleheader, and a nine-inning limit in the first game of the doubleheader (no extra innings).
Additionally, NPB games have a total time limit of 210 minutes during the regular season before being counted as a tie. Postseason play has reduced the number of innings allowed. Until 1986, the Japan Series had a 270-minute (4 hours, 30 minutes) time limit. From 1987 to 1993, it was changed to 18 innings; from 1994 to 2017, it was 15 innings. In the Climax Series, and in the Japan Series since 2018, postseason play rules are the same as the regular season in 12 innings (except in 2020 and 2021, when no extra innings were played in the regular season and first two rounds of postseason, 12 inning limits were used in the Japan Series). In case of a drawn game, it is completely replayed as usual. A seven-game series can be extended to an eighth game or subsequent game, something that has happened only once (in the 1986 Japan Series). Starting in the eighth and subsequent game in the Japan Series, the 12-inning limit does not apply, and the game is continued until a winner is decided. Since 2021, a modified 12-inning limit is used in such games; beginning in the 13th inning, the two-runner WBSC tiebreaker will be implemented, similar to the current high school tournament rule. The two batters in the batting order before the player at bat will take first and second base.
Tie games are discarded when calculating winning percentages since 2002, except for 2008 when it was counted as a loss in the league's standings. From the league's formation in 1982 until 2001, they counted as half a win.
For CPBL postseason games, the 12-inning limit does not apply and the games will continue until a winner is decided. The longest game to be played took place during 2009 Taiwan Series, where in Game 6 the Brother Elephants defeated Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 5 to 4 after 17 innings.
International play
Baseball In the 11th inning, the manager selects anywhere in the batting order to start the inning, regardless of the last player put out. The batter immediately preceding this newly designated leadoff man becomes a runner on first base, and the next preceding batter is placed on second base. In subsequent innings, the batting order continues as normal, but the two players preceding the player scheduled to lead off (or substitutes for those players) the inning start on second and first.
This has also been adopted by European leagues Division de Honor (Spain), Italian Baseball League, and Honkbal Hoofdklasse (Netherlands).
Since the 2009 edition, a modified form of the rule has been used for the World Baseball Classic. Unlike the standard rule, the batting order may not start from a different place. Through the 2013 edition, the first inning in which teams started with runners on first and second was the 13th. The rule was not used in either the 2009 or 2013 editions because no game lasted more than 11 innings. For the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the rule was modified to use extra runners for the first time in the 11th inning, and it would see its first use in a second-round game between Japan and the Netherlands at the Tokyo Dome. Japan won that game thanks to a sacrifice bunt and a 2-run hit.
Other methods include the following: Putting runners on second and third (those who made the last two outs of the past inning) and an 0-2 count on the batter with no outs. Having bases loaded (runners being the last three outs of the past inning), with a 1-1 count on the batter and no outs. Sudden-death extra innings (the next team to score wins the game; this can result in a walk-off home run for the visiting team).
Softball In international softball, a special extra innings rule starts immediately after regulation. Each team begins their half of the inning with a runner on second base (the last player to be put out). This increases the odds that teams will score and ensures a faster resolution. There is a drawback, though, in that the home team has a major advantage in batting second. Should the visiting team fail to score, all the home team must do to win is, for example, get a successful bunt and sacrifice fly to score the winning run, though a similar advantage exists in all extra-inning contests just not to that extent. This rule is also used in certain NCAA college conferences, usually applied after one or two extra innings where the "international tiebreaker" is not used.
Major League Baseball
Spring training During spring training in Major League Baseball (MLB), most games are played for the regulation nine innings only; if the game is tied after nine innings, the game is over and the tie stands. There are multiple reasons for this brevity. Players are getting back into shape after the off-season, so shorter games help reduce injuries from overexertion. During spring training, teams often travel on a daily basis, so they need time to be able to travel to their next game. Lastly, there are no prizes or penalties associated with a team's preseason record, so there is no need for a definitive winner in each game.
However, there have still been extra inning games in spring training, with the most recent one being on March 30, 2022, with the Houston Astros beating the New York Mets 5–3 in 10 innings. Usually if extra innings are played, the game will be called after the 10th inning for the above-mentioned reasons.
Regular season
In 2020, MLB implemented the WBSC softball version of the extra innings rule where each half-inning during extra innings is started with a runner on second base. As with the earlier WBSC rule, the objective is to increase scoring opportunities and shorten extra inning games. The batting order does not change, as the runner placed on second base is normally the player who, in the batting order, immediately precedes the batter leading off the inning. On July 24, 2020, the Oakland Athletics defeated the Los Angeles Angels, 7–3, in the first MLB extra-inning game played using this rule. The rule increased the percentage of extra inning games ending in the 10th inning from 43.9% during the 2019 season to 69.1% during the 2020 season. The rule was later extended into the 2021 and 2022 seasons and was made permanent beginning with the 2023 season.
The ghost runner is also referred to as the "Manfred Man," an allusion to the rule having been implemented during Commissioner Rob Manfred's tenure, and a play on the name of the British musician Manfred Mann. However, the rule is based on the international rule for tournaments, which has been used as early as 2008.
Postseason Extra runners are not used in MLB postseason games. Postseason games that last beyond nine innings begin all extra innings without any runner being placed on base.
Longest games
Professional There are nine regulation innings in a professional baseball game.
Minor League Baseball
The record for the most innings played in a single professional game is 33, which occurred in 1981 in a Minor League Baseball game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, at the time the Triple-A affiliates of the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles, respectively.
Each team had a future Hall of Famer on its roster: Wade Boggs for Pawtucket and Cal Ripken Jr. for Rochester.
Major League Baseball The longest game by innings in Major League Baseball was a 1–1 tie in the National League between the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Robins in 26 innings, at Braves Field in Boston on May 1, . It had become too dark to see the ball (fields did not have lights yet and the sun was setting), and the game was considered a draw. Played rapidly by modern standards, those 26 innings were completed in 3 hours and 50 minutes. As was the custom, the first pitch was thrown at 3:00 p.m., home plate umpire Barry McCormick called the game as lights began appearing in the windows of buildings across the Charles River, just before 7:00 p.m.