Baseball's Batting Out Of Order
63Batting out of Turn (or out of order) occurs when the official batting order is not followed in sequential order. When all nine batters have batted, the order is repeated from the top of the lineup.
According the Major League Base Official Rules 6.07 BATTING OUT OF TURN. (a) A batter shall be called out, on appeal, when he fails to bat in his proper turn, and another batter completes a time at bat in his place. (1) The proper batter may take his place in the batter's box at any time before the improper batter becomes a runner or is put out, and any balls and strikes shall be counted in the proper batter's time at bat.
Rule 6.07 (a) A batter shall be called out, on appeal, when he fails to bat in his proper turn, and another batter completes a time at bat in his place.
Example:
1.The official batting order is Joe, Bob, Mark & Tom
2.Joe gets up and grounds out to the shortstop (6-3)
3.Mark then bats out of turn (Bob should have been up).
4.Mark reaches first base safely on a single (1B) to center field (noted by the thin line drawn from home to center field)
5.Then Bob gets ready to hit.
6.But before a pitch is thrown the defense notices they are batting out of turn and inform the umpire.
Ruling:
1.Bob is ruled out because he should have been the batter prior to Mark. In this instance the catcher gets credited with the Putout (PO-2). I've added a "+" as a bookmark to reference a complete explanation at the bottom of the scorecard.
2.Since Mark already completed his at bat, resulting in a single, he remains on first base
3.The next batter after Bob is Mark, but Mark has already batted so Tom is the next batter.
The footnote for this play might say something like this:
+ Mark batted out of order before Bob. The defense discovered it after Mark singled but before any pitch to a subsequent batter. Bob was ruled out for batting out of order for the second out and Tom became the new batter.
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Hey Carl, thanks for your comment.
The MLB ruling for Batting Out of Order is complicated but I believe the example and illustration is correct.
According to MLB official rules .... Rule 6.07 BATTING OUT OF TURN, subsection (b) http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rule states:
"When an improper batter becomes a runner or is put out, and the defensive team appeals to the umpire before the first pitch to the next batter of either team, or before any play or attempted play, the umpire shall
1) declare the proper batter out; and
2) nullify any advance or score made because of a ball batted by the improper batter or because of the improper batter’s advance to first base on a hit, an error, a base on balls, a hit batter or otherwise.
(1)In the example, "Bob", the proper batter, is declared out and (2) Mark, the improper batter, remains on first base. Tom becomes the next batter.
This situation agrees with the MLB explanation and the following example provided in the MLB official rulebook pertaining to this situation:
APPROVED RULING
"To illustrate various situations arising from batting out of turn, assume a first inning batting order as follows:
Abel-Baker-Charles-Daniel-Edward-Frank-George-Hooker-Irwin.
PLAY (2). Baker bats and doubles. The defensive team appeals (a) immediately or (b) after a pitch to Charles.
RULING: (a) Abel is called out and Baker is the proper batter; (b) Baker stays on second and Charles is the proper batter."
This ruling is very confusing but I believe it is correct. However, I welcome any other comments or interpretations regarding this rule - I want to be accurate!
Thanks
In Play (2)(a), notice that Baker is removed from base and comes to bat again, because he is now the proper batter.
If you nullify an improper batter's actions, you remove him from base if he reached base.
Carl, your interpretation of the rule is absolutely correct.
An IMMEDIATE appeal would have Bob called out, Mark removed from first base, and Mark batting again (because he is next batter in the official batting order(after Bob).
Thanks for setting the record straight.
How about this one
1st inning 1-2-3
2nd inning 4-5-6
3rd inning 7-8-9
4th inning 1-3-2 (no appeal because both made outs)
5th inning 3-4-5 (appeal after 1 pitch on 3 -ump kept him a bat)
Seems like 4 should have replaced him, no out called
Responding to Donnybaseball's message of 2 months ago:
OK, the 1-3-2 batter sequence in 4th inning stands because of no appeal. In other words, batter 2 is legal even though he was out of turn here. So for start of 5th inning, we go to batter 3, because he is next after batter 2 in the order, and appeal cannot change that, so the ump was correct to continue with batter 3.
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Carl Moore 23 months ago
I do not expect to be here long enough to warrant setting up an account, but I did want to comment on the page "http://hubpages.com/hub/Batting-Out-Of-Order".
You have Mark batting one spot too early (should have been Bob's turn) and singling. Immediate appeal would have Bob called out, Mark removed from base, and Mark batting again, because he is now the proper batter.
(reply to cmoore@arl.army.mil for me to see reply sooner)