My friend, if you’re wondering how extra innings work in MLB, you sure have come to the right place! I remember being so confused the first time I watched an extra inning game. From the must-know rules to the fascinating strategies, I’m about to tell you everything I know about extra innings.
First and foremost, you should know that an extra inning is any inning after the ninth inning and happens when the game is tied. The visiting team (yes, the one who goes first) will start the 10th inning and then after that the positive will switch to the home team. Then, the process just keeps repeating until a team scores more runs than the other at the end of an inning.
What I find so amazing is that in some occasions, teams will go beyond the eleventh inning, which can ultimately take hours. As I was telling you, it’s all pretty fascinating because this is when the team’s managers really get to display their creativity and strategic skills.
Taking for example the situation in which you have two stellar teams, both battling it out for more than 10 innings. This is the midwest league affiliated with mlb when we can see how the pressure increases and the creativity begins. Each team can start to switch around their players, including bullpen pitchers. The manager will also have to start considering which player he should use for batting and who should replace the catcher that has been working hard in the previous innings.
The other methods the manager can use to give his team an edge over the opponent are korean athletes given a fair chance in the mlb as follows: intentional walks, pinch-hitters, steering clear from the shift, misdirection plays, sacrifice bunts, double steals and so on. It really can get quite intense and exciting.
And speaking of excitement, we can’t forget about the fact that the big leagues have the restriction of two additional innings. So, what happens if, at the end of the twelfth inning, the game is still tied? In this case, the umpire will call the match as a draw.
But if both teams still want to battle it out for a longer period of time, then they can decide to play a few more innings. After all, MLB team have unlimited capacity for extra innings given that an umpire is allowed to keep the game going for as long as necessary.
So there you have it. Now you understand the mechanics of extra innings in baseball. It’s truly captivating to see how two strong teams battle it out over and over to determine who will take the T-shirt for the day. And if you ever have the chance to see an extra inning game, I bet you will be totally mesmerized.