Getting Caught In A Rundown In Baseball

Maybe you're a fan of watching major league baseball on TV but you're not familiar with all the baseball situations or how to score baseball. Maybe one of these baseball situations is the rundown. The terminology announcers and baseball scorekeepers use is "getting caught in a rundown".

Getting caught in a Rundown is a situation when a baserunner is stranded between two bases and is in a position to be tagged out. In order for a rundown to occur, the runner cannot be in a "forced" position

[NOTE: A "force" occurs when a runner is forced to vacate the base he is on because the runner or batter behind him has no means of retreat. Another way of putting it is if there was a runner on first base and the batter hits a ground ball; the batter has no choice but to run to first base. And that means the runner on first can't stay there - he has no recourse but to try to advance to second base].

Getting caught in a rundown happens many times when a base runner attempts to advance to the next base but is cut off by a fielder, who then "runs" the runner back to the originating base.

While doing this, the fielder throws the ball to another fielder at the originating base, forcing the runner to reverse course and head to the next base (for the second time). This scenario can be repeated over and over again.

There can be three outcomes:
1 the runner is tagged out,
2 the runner gets back to the originating base safely or
3 the runner successfully advances to the next base.

If you wanted to score the rundown situation in a baseball score book you must include every defensive player who was involved in the play (who touched the ball), from beginning to end.

Let's run through a simple example of a baseball getting caught in a rundown. Here is the situation:

There is a man on second base with no outs.

The batter hits a ground ball to the second baseman. The runner on second base takes off toward third base.

The second baseball catches the ground ball and throws it to the third baseman covering third base.

However, the runner becomes aware of the situation, stops running toward third base, turns around, and then heads back to second base.

Now the third baseman sees that runner is heading back toward second and he throws the ball to the second basemen who is now covering second base.

The runner then realizes if he continues back to second base he might be tagged out by the second baseman. So what does he do? He stops, turns around, and again, runs toward third base.

The second basemen reacts by throwing the ball back to the third baseman covering third base.

The play ends when the third baseman catches the ball and tags the runner out before he reaches third base safely.

Now, recording the rundown situation in a baseball scorebook can be complicated, especially when there are more men on base and other defensive players get involved.

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