another baseball scoring question

I like to think that I know everything about scoring, but this one has me baffled...

Pitcher starts the inning. Walks the first batter and is pulled. The relief pitcher walks the next batter. third batter drops a bunt, and the lead runner (walked by the starter) is retired. The second walked runner eventually scores on the next play.

Is the run charged to the starter or the reliever? The stat guys charged the earned run to the starter even though the runner he was responsible for was retired on the fielder's choice. is that right?

 

Charged to the first pitcher.

 

The stat guy is wrong. The inherited runner did not score, so the starter cannot be charged with the run. Once that runner is retired, his line is closed for the day.

 

OK guys, tackle this one:

Little League softball, Team A is having a blowout inning, the kind where they bat around the lineup twice. There's one out. Batter strikes out, umpire calls the third out and all the players run to the dugouts. Everyone who's keeping a book is in agreement: the strikeout is only the second out.

The umpire shruggs. The Team A coach says that's OK, we'll take the field. The game resumes.

How in the hell do you score THAT?

 

Just write down "DUMB" in your scorebook.

Discretion of Umpire Mindful of Blowouts. ;D

(And that's coming from someone who has umpired his share of LL games in his life, and who has pulled the "ah hell, let 'em go" rule that's not in the handbook once or twice before.)

 

it's little league softball. score it any damn way you want. who gives a shit?

 

Why would you be keeping a box score at a little league softball game? Is your article really dependent on each little detail?

 

Agreed. I've seen Little League games where if a team scored 10 runs in an inning, the opposing team had the option of giving them one more run in order to end the inning.

 

According to the MLB rule book, section 10.18 (g):

When pitchers are changed during an inning, the relief pitcher shall not be charged with any run (earned or unearned) scored by a runner who was on base at the time he entered the game, nor for runs scored by any runner who reaches base on a fielder's choice which puts out a runner left on base by the preceding pitcher.

So... the run would go to the starting pitcher... In other words, if a fielder's choice is recorded, the starter's run reverts to the new lead runner.

No less an authority than T.R. Sullivan schooled me on this situation once.

 

Call the next batter out for stepping out of the batter's box. I think it's recorded as a strikeout. Third out.

 

Good work F-B..I was just about to post that rule but you beat me to it.

 

That is an excellent suggestion, complete with suitable acronym!

I also heard I should score it "LLM" - Little League Moment.