How Baseball Works - A Beginner's Guide
Just like with any game, if you want to join in the betting aspect, you need to know the rules. Fanduel's MLB picks are a great guide to making good baseball betting choices, but you also need to know what you’re looking at!
Beginning To End
To win the game, you need to score more runs than the opposing team. You score runs by hitting the ball into the “fair” and running from the home base and back to the home base. The fair is between 1st base and 3rd base. You don’t hit the ball behind you (the 4th base, also known as home).
Once you hit the ball, you need to run to each base, touching them as you go, and try to get back to the home base. You can stop on a base if you don’t think you can reach home, but you cannot stop between bases.
The opposing team will try to get you out by making the ball hit you. If they get the ball to you while you are between bases, you are out. If they get the ball to the base you are running to before you reach it, you are out. If you stop at a base, and they get you, you are safe but cannot move until the next player hits the ball.
They might try to “force” you into not completing a home run by hitting the ball against a base you haven’t reached yet, thereby stopping you from going too far.
Another way to get you out of the game is through strikes. If you swing with your bat and miss, or the ball lands outside of “fair,” you gain a strike. Three strikes and you’re out.
When a team has three players taken out, their half of the game (or “Inning”) is over. The teams then switch places. There are 9 Innings per game, and no time limit.
Pitching
Pitching is when you throw the ball. The aim is to stop the opponent from hitting it. The pitcher has three balls per player, and needs to throw within a certain area, but they can distract the batter to stop them hitting the ball.
Pitches
There are lots of different ways to distract the batter through the ball, here are a couple of basic pitches.
1. 4-Seam Fastball
This pitch is a classic. Simply throw faster than they can hit. If the batter is slower than you, you will force them out.
2. Change-Up
People can get used to a quick ball, so you need to throw slower every now and then. They will swing early and miss, or hit into the foul zone (anywhere that's not “fair”).
3. Curveball
This is another slow pitch, but the ball curves to the side and then back to the catcher. It’s hard for the batters to know where this ball will go.
4. Slider
Sliders are faster than curveballs but slower than fastballs. They slide off-center like a curveball but don’t center back to the catcher. Batters often think they are receiving a fastball and don’t realize that the ball is curving off until it’s too late, making them hit into the foul zone.
Switching Pitchers
The team doesn’t want the opposition to get too used to the pitcher’s swing. This is why most teams will switch out the pitchers throughout the Innings. It is unusual for a team to keep a pitcher for all 9 Innings, but when it does happen, it's called a “Complete Game.”
Batting
Batters don’t have to swing at every pitch. If they do, they can lose their energy and focus. Instead, many batters will study their pitchers to see how they manipulate their ball. Of course, they might try to change up their stride and hit the first time when the pitcher suspects a missed swing.
Baseball is a game of study, tactics, chance, and skill.
