Last updated on October 26th, 2023 at 07:05 am
Professional baseball games have nine innings of regular play. Each team has 27 outs to use, which means three outs per inning. If a game after the ninth inning is a tie, the game goes into extra innings to determine a winner. If the home team is winning the game after the visiting team records their 27th out, the game is over even without them recording 27 outs.
So, what does the top and bottom of an inning mean in baseball? Can games end before nine innings, and does the postseason or World Series have longer games than nine innings? How does extra innings work?
Here is the complete breakdown of baseball innings.
Can Games End Before 9 Innings of Baseball in the Regular Season?
An official baseball game occurs when one team records 15 outs against the other team and is winning. This official game rule is essential to know if a game goes into a rain delay or rainout.
For example, the visiting team is winning 6-2 after the fifth inning, and rain starts coming down at the top of the sixth. If the rain doesn’t clear for the rest of the day, umpires can call the contest an official game even without playing nine innings of baseball, and the visiting team wins.
Can Games End Before 9 Innings of Baseball in the Postseason or World Series?
Unlike the regular season, where a game can conclude after 15 outs and a team winning, the postseason and World Series will always resume action the next day. The most famous moment of this occurring was during the 2008 World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. Game 5 was put into a rain delay and resumed precisely where the action was left off two days later.
Is there a Time Limit in Professional Baseball Games?
There is no time limit in professional baseball games, but the minor leagues are experimenting with a pitch clock to speed up the game’s action. Minor League Baseball tends to test rule changes before implementing them in MLB, so you might see a time limit on pitching in the future.
How Does Extra Innings Work in Major League Baseball?
Extra innings in Major League Baseball occurs when the game is tied after nine innings of play. New starting in the 2020 season automatically put a baserunner on second base who made the last out the previous inning. The idea behind putting a runner on second base is to speed up the game’s conclusion.
Before this rule change, extra-inning baseball would work just like the previous nine innings where teams had three outs to use per inning. At the end of an extra inning, whatever team had more runs would win the game. Before 2021’s extra-inning rule, no automatic runner was put on second base to speed up the game’s conclusion in the MLB.
What was Longest Major League Baseball Game via Innings?
According to MLB.com, the Brooklyn Robins vs. the Boston Braves was the longest professional game at 26 innings. Shockingly, that game took under four hours to complete, which today’s baseball games take about three hours to complete nine innings.
How Many Innings Does the MLB Postseason and World Series Have?
The MLB Postseason and World Series each have nine innings of play. The format works the same as the regular season, where the away team bats at the top of every inning. The only main difference is that games won’t be called during a rainout as they will during the regular season. Any rainout game will resume the next day during the postseason and world series.
How Many Innings Does Minor League Baseball Have?
Minor League Baseball games have nine innings, just like MLB games. The top of the inning has the away team bat, while the bottom of the inning has the home team bat. Games can go into extra innings if the game does not have a winner after the ninth inning.
How Many Innings is in Little League?
The number of innings a Little League game plays is six innings. The game lasts about an hour to an hour and a half at this level.
Conclusion: How Many Innings are in Baseball Games?
In summary, a professional baseball game is nine innings of play. However, in MLB, there are some exceptions when games can end before nine innings if there is a rainout, and the match meets the minimum requirement to be an official game. For the MLB World Series and Postseason, games are also nine innings.
High School baseball games are only seven innings, and Little League games are six. Softball games are only seven innings of play.
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Greg Kristan, owner of The Stadium Reviews, LLC and TM Blast, LLC, brings his extensive experience visiting over half of the MLB ballparks, along with numerous MLS, NHL, NBA, and NFL venues, to provide in-depth coverage on the bag policy, food options, and parking. He has also been interviewed about his experiences on several sports podcasts.