Last Updated on July 3, 2021 by
Nine innings! A professional baseball lasts for a total of nine innings. Each inning is divided into two sections, there is the top and bottom inning. In pro baseball, the away team bats first during the top inning while the home team bats after them during the bottom inning. In baseball, innings are the primary division of play which has two halves, the top, and the bottom. In every half, the offensive team bats until there are three outs with the defensive team.
A Table Showing The Types Of Inning In Baseball
Types Of Inning In Pro Baseball | Explanation |
Top inning | The top of the inning when the away team takes the batting stand to bat until they have out three batters. |
Bottom inning | The bottom inning is when the home team takes their turn to bat with the away team infield. |
Middle inning | This is usually a two or three minutes period between the top and middle inning. Most teams change their gears during this time. |
9th inning | The ninth inning is the end of the game. Well sometimes, the 9th inning doesn’t always have to end for the game to end. If by the top of the 9th inning and the home team is still leading, the 9th inning doesn’t have to end before the game ends. The home team automatically wins. |
Extra inning | The extra-inning is used for when after the 9th inning and the game is still tied. |
How Long Does The Baseball Inning Last?

The length of a baseball inning just like the length of a baseball game doesn’t obey the minute and hour rule. It just depends on some things like the number of At-bats, pitching adjustments, and the pace of the pitcher. As we have said before, the baseball inning ends after six outs. The six outs consist of three outs from each team. Do you know what this means? It means that when the fielding team doesn’t record up to three outs during that inning, the inning might just last forever. Although forever is too much, let’s just say for a long time. This has been repeated in this article a lot of times, the inning has two halves, batting for the visiting team is placed in the top half while batting for the home team is in the bottom half. When there is a situation whereby the total amounts of runs scored by both teams are the same by the end of nine innings. Additional innings are included until one team scores more runs than the other in one inning.
Baseball Innings Consist Of How Many Outs?
A typical baseball inning will have a total of six outs because each team has three outs each. The thing here is that there are different kinds of outs. We will give you the different kinds of outs:
1. Strikeouts
A strikeout is when the batter is put out if their pitcher can throw three strikes. When this happens, we can say that the batter has been struck out. This is what happens, the pitcher throws the ball directly to the strike zone. We know you don’t know the strike zone but we will tell you, the strike zone is below the center of the batters waist and shoulder. It is just above the knee. When the batter swings his bat at a ball that was pitched, we call it a strike.
2. Fly Out
This is when the batter hits the ball after it was pitched and then unfortunately for him, an infielder catches the ball so the batter cannot make his run.
3. Force Out
This only happens when the batter is on the run. It is whereby a player from the defensive side touches the runner with the ball when he isn’t on a base.
4. Tagged Out
The requirement of a batter is for him to take a hit on the ball so it goes in front of the first or third base. This part of the field is known as the foul lines. The runner is obligated to run over to the first base without being tagged out. And when a runner isn’t on a base, a player from the defensive whilst holding the ball can touch him and tag him out.
How Does A Game End In Baseball?
We will give you three situations in which a baseball game can end:
1. A baseball game can be said to have ended when the home team is still ahead after the top half of the ninth inning.
2. The game can be called to an end if one of the teams is ahead of the other after the ninth inning.
3. The game also ends when the home team scores a winning run during their half of the ninth inning. The game ends as soon as they score the run.
The Longest Game In Baseball Had How Many Innings?
In history, the longest baseball game was played in 1920, a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. This game had 26 innings and still ended 1-1. Shocking right? What were they doing for 26 innings? Well, that was then, the modern rule states that a game will never end in a tie.
Can A Baseball Game End In The Seventh Inning?
Sometimes yes a game can end in the seventh inning. Although, this is the umpire’s call. There have been situations where the game had to be stopped temporarily for extenuating situations. This can only happen when something happens and affects the game like bad weather, the game can be stopped for the day.
Summing It Up
Let’s sum it all up by saying that a baseball game never lasts the same time and neither does a baseball inning. While being officiated by some special rules that reduce the time of the game. Baseball is truly one of America’s past times, it has its iconic periods that cannot be forgotten easily, the game has been around for a very long time and is played by mostly North Americans and the Japanese. We’ve reached the end of this informative article. We hope that this article helped you find resources in your quest to know how many innings are in pro baseball. Do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments. Thanks!