Category: rules

An early purchaser of the game contacted me with a request for clarification on this question which came up in a play session.

When there’s a runner on 1st and 2nd base and the batter hits a Grounder Right into a double play, does the runner on 2nd base advance?

Yes.

Let me fully specify. In RallyBird Baseball terms, the card that Offense played is one of these five:

Infield Right, Infield Left, Grounder Right, Grounder Left, Bunt Hit:

What happens in a common Double Play (dice < Gloves result) with no Outs if there are also runners on 2B, 3B? By common Double Play I mean with runner on 1B put out while forced to advance to 2B and the batter put out while advancing to 1B.

Baseball logic applies. Since there is a runner on 1st base, a runner on 2B must advance to 3B during the hit which quickly turns out to be a Double Play at 1B and 2B.

If there was also a runner on 3B (in other words Bases Loaded), the advancing runner from 2B to 3B in turn forces a runner on 3B to score. If there’s no runner on 2B, a runner on 3B stays on base during the Double Play result.

For Sac Right/Left in this situation, runners on 2B and 3B must hold. They had to return to base after the fielder caught the ball, and then the infielders had control of the ball.

Although baseball logic makes sense here, I’d like the game as much as possible to specify the resolution. I want players with different levels of baseball confidence to enjoy the game. I don’t think I can fit all this information on the respective cards, but will look for a place in the rules. Actually I already know there is no room in the rules, so will have to agonize a little…

Incidentally, if a runner scored on a double-play, that doesn’t count as an RBI for the batter! This is a clue to baseball tradition’s sense of relative value between outs and runs, and helps me think about the sacrifice fly & sacrifice bunt. I’d like to do another video on that topic, but I’m still cogitating and scribbling graphs in a dog-eared notebook.

(Runners on 2nd and 3rd base are Runners In Scoring Position in baseball lingo, or RISP. This is a good acronym to have in your ready baseball vocabulary.)