Small ball (baseball)

Common card · No. 320832

Small ball is an informal term in the sport of baseball for an offensive strategy in which the batting team emphasizes placing runners on base and then advancing them into scoring position for a run in a deliberate way. This strategy places a high value on individual runs and attempts to score them without requiring extra base hits, or sometimes without base hits at all, instead using bases on balls, stolen bases, sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly balls, the hit-and-run play, and aggressive baserunning with such plays as the contact play. A commonly used term for a run produced playing small ball is a "manufactured run". This style of play was more often found in National League game situations than in the American League due in large part to the absence of the designated hitter in the National League until the universal adoption of the Designated Hitter. A team may incorporate a small-ball strategy for a variety of reasons, including: The team is confident that their pitching staff will...

Read on Wikipedia · Image User Rdikeman on en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0