Win the Free-90 game!

Try this experiment. Look at every box score on a given day (MLB, college, high school, or Little League) and answer this question:

How many times did the winning team score an equal number of runs or more runs in one inning than the losing team scored all game?

I did this experiment over the past two weekends using all Division 1 games played by teams that were ranked in the top-25.  (Website used)

On the weekends of 3/18 and 3/25, there were 130 games played by top-25 D1 teams.  Of those 130, 86 of them involved the winning team scoring an equal number of runs or more runs in one inning then the losing team scored all game.  That is 66% of the time.  Two-Thirds!!! Look at games at the high school level and below and the number typically will be over 75%. MLB games are usually over 50%.

The big inning is huge in baseball.  Put up one or more “crooked numbers” on the scoreboard and your chances of winning go up considerably.  How do you take advantage of this?  

Win the Free-90 game!

A “Free-90” is any play that allows a runner to get on base or move up at least one base due to a mistake on defense.  The three main categories of mistakes include walks, errors, and misplays.  Virtually all big innings (3+ runs) are caused by one or more of those things happening.  Sometimes an offense will only hit their way to multiple runs but an inning of 5 runs on 8 hits is rare.  Usually, it involves several Free-90’s and a couple big hits mixed in along the way. Big innings usually look more like 5 runs on 3 hits, 2 walks, and 2 errors.

Walks and errors are easy to identify and, therefore, count.  Misplays are more difficult because many of them never show up in box scores.  To win, however, you better notice them so that you can address them in practice.

The following is a list of misplays that often result in a Free-90 for the offense:

• Passed balls and wild pitches

• Forgetting to back up bases 

• Balks

• Hit batters

• Catcher’s interference

• Obstruction of runners

• Botched rundowns

• Not getting an out on a sacrifice bunt

• Missed cutoff man

• Dropped ball on a tag

• Missing a runner on a tag

• Not getting to a bag on time

• Letting a catchable/stoppable ball get past you

• Rushing a throw

• A pitcher forgetting to cover 1st base

• A pitcher too slow getting off the mound to cover a base or to field a ball

• Not expecting a ball to be hit to you

• Making throws difficult to handle (too hard, inaccurate and/or in-between hops)

The cat-and-mouse game of offense and defense is largely a battle of the Free-90’s. Win that game on defense and you won’t have to be a great hitting team to win, even against good pitching. Being a good base running team that consistently puts the ball in play forces the defense to make more of these kids of plays which ups their chances of not being able to all the time.

Win the Free-90 game and your team’s win column will thank you.

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