How to Fill a Baseball Box Score

A box score in baseball is a statistical summary of a game that details the performance of the team and individual players. A box score should reflect the result of every at-bat for each batter, a summary for each pitcher, the important defensive plays and other information pertinent to the result of the game.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Filling in the Offensive Section

1. List the players in their batting order and indicate their defensive positions next to their name using abbreviations like SS for shortstop 1B first baseman. If a player comes in to pinch hit, add them to the list and place PH next to their name. If a player pinch hits and stays in the game or changes positions during the game, place a dash and their new position such as PH-CF.

2. Fill in the offensive categories for each batter. Some box scores may have more or fewer categories, but the basic abbreviations are: AB–at-bat, R–runs, H–hits, RBI–runs-batted-in, BB–base on balls or walks, SO–strikeouts, LOB–runners left on base and AVG – batting average.

3. Total the categories at the bottom of the section.

Filling in the Batting, Baserunning and Fielding Sections

4. Place the batting section directly under the offensive section. List extra base hits (2B, 3B, HR), RBI, sacrifice hits (SF), hit by pitches (HBP) and grounded into double plays (GIDP). Fill it in by placing the abbreviation, followed by the players name, then, for extra base hits, place in parentheses how many of those hits the player has on the season and what pitcher he hit it off of. For example: HR: B Ruth (28, C Young).

5. Write down baserunning information after the batting section. Include stolen bases (SB) and caught stealing (CS). Fill it out like you would the batting section.

6. Note the defensive plays of the game after the baserunning section in the fielding section. This is where you put errors (E), double plays (DP), fielder's choices (FC), passed balls (PB) and force outs (FO).

Filling in the Pitching Section

7. Put in all the pitchers' names that pitched in the game in the far left column. Beside their name fill in if they got the win with a W or a loss with an L and put their win-loss record. If the pitcher got a hold, place and H and how many holds they have on the season, and if they got a save place an S and how many saves they have.

8. Insert the statistics of each pitcher. The common categories are innings pitch (IP), hits allowed (H), runs allowed (R), earned runs allowed (ER), walks allowed (BB), strike outs (SO), homeruns allowed (HR) and earned run average (ERA).

9. Document pitching statistics such as batters faced, intentional walks (IBB), hit batters (HBP), balks (BK), and wild pitches (WP) directly under the individual pitching statistics.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also document scoring plays and situations at the bottom of the box score as well as game information such as starting time, length of game, wind speed, temperature, umpires and attendance.

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