Expert: Brian Flaspohler - 4/4/2006

Question
What is the rule regarding left on base? How can a team have a total LOB greater than the number of baserunners they had during the game?  For example in tonight's opening day game between the A's and Yanks, Oakland only had 8 hits and 0 walks, but still had a total of 14 LOB?  How is this possible?

Thanks.

Answer
Josh,

Here's how it works...

Joe comes up with one out and two people on.  He strikes out, leaving two people on base.  Then Bill comes up with the same two people on base.  He hits a weak fly ball ending the inning - again leaving two guys on base.

So, the players just left four people on base in an inning, even though only two people got on!

Typically, for the team stat, they only count the people on base at the end of the inning, but for individuals, they count everyone.  Since this isn't an official stat, different people add it in different ways.

Hope this helps!

Brian