Last Updated on July 3, 2021 by
The traditional way of reading a baseball scoreboard is from the left side of the board to the right side. The name of the teams is written by the far left. The numbers one to nine are written on the board and they each indicate each inning. Just below these numbers are the scores are of each inning. The letters R, H, and E are written also and they show how many runs, hits, and errors happened in the game. If you attend a baseball game, you must see a giant scoreboard that gives you the details of all the happenings in the game. All the items that are written on the board signify something and all have their meaning. These items are letters, numbers, and statistics. With this board giving all this information, you would think it’s easy to figure out a way to read the board, but no it’s not. We will be giving you detailed info on how to read the information on a baseball scoreboard.
We will explain to you how to read a baseball scoreboard by explaining each item on the board. Here is a list of the information on a baseball scoreboard:
1. Names Of Both Teams
The name of both teams playing is always very obvious on the scoreboard. These names are written on the left side of the scoreboard and the visiting team’s name is written on top of the name of the home team. The home team bats last so that’s why its name is written below the visiting team. This way, you would know what team is batting and what section of the inning the game is. Keep in mind that this all depends on the type of scoreboard and what league game you are watching. Most times, the name of the teams won’t be written, visitor or home could be written, or sometimes the team logo would be drawn there to indicate.
2. Amount Of Runs Scored Every Inning
The long numbers in two columns on the right side, the same line as the names of the teams. Those numbers are the number of runs for each inning. Also, the number of innings depends on the league game. You should know that the inning should be from around 3 to 9. It is always the longest part of the board. To understand this part of the scoreboard, you have to look at the top column on the board. In the MLB it will read from one to nine, the numbers there represent each inning.
Just below each inning, there are numbers that represent the number of runs made by each team during their half-inning. This section of the board isn’t just for telling us the number of runs but also tells us what inning the game currently is.
3. Runs, Hits, And Errors
Moving more to the far right there are three additional rows inscribed R, H, and E at the top. These three letters mean Runs, Hits, and Errors. The R is the total amount of runs made by the team, this number increases as the game goes on and more runs are made.
The H on the scoreboard indicates the hits received by all members of the team during the game. The hits include all the singles, doubles, triples, and home runs.
The E here stands for errors. This is the number of errors the defense was made during the game. This is said to be all the defensive errors made by each team, it also tells spectators about how a team’s performance was.
4.Balls, Strikes, And Outs
This section is also very common, it tells us the number of balls, strikes, and outs for each half-inning. This section, depending on the type of scoreboard is found either above or below the section that shows the total number of runs in one inning. The balls and strikes change every at-bat pitch and tell the spectators the batter’s current count. The number of outs changes after an offensive player is removed. With this information, the spectators can tell how many outs were acquired in a half-inning.
5. Pitcher’s Number
Some baseball scoreboards have a part labeled ‘p’ on the board. The ‘p’ on the baseball scoreboard stands for a pitcher. There will be a number displayed in this section. The number is the same number on the pitcher’s jersey. The number tells the spectators what team is currently pitching.
6. Batter’s Number
Most baseball scoreboards have a section where the number on the jersey of the batter is displayed, it is usually titled the at-bat. It is used to tell the spectators the player who is about to bat.
7. Left On Base(LOB)
This is on the scoreboard of most major league teams, it is directly to the right of the R, H, E section. The acronym stands for Left on base as written above. The number displayed here is the total number of players or runners who were still on base after each inning.
8. MVR(Mound Visits Remaining)
This was added to most scoreboards in 2018. The MVR is the mound visits remaining, and each team gets five per game. The MVR section on the scoreboard starts at 0 and will be increased by one after each mound visit. The MVR is placed close to the LOB on the board at the far right.
9. Batting Statistics
Adding to the other pieces of information on the baseball scoreboard, some scoreboards include the batting statistics of each player. On the scoreboard, there will be a batting average for each person in that season. When the player comes up to bat his stats will be highlighted and whatever he achieved will be added there.
Final Thoughts
A summary of what we have said here today is that on a scoreboard, the team names are on the left side, the runs per inning columns are put on the middle, and then we have the total number of runs, hits, and errors in the game put on the right side of the board. These are the main information, the rest are just additional. We’ve reached the end of this informative article. We hope that this article helped you find resources in your quest to know how to read a baseball scoreboard. Do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments. Thanks!
