How to Read a Baseball Box Score

Baseball scores can quickly tell a person about a game, if you can decipher the abbreviations. Baseball box scores are particularly important to people who play in a fantasy baseball league because box scores allow people to easily see what each player did.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Understand the line score. This is where the two teams are listed, along with the number of runs each team scored per inning. This is followed by the total runs scored by each team, the team’s hits and the team’s errors.
2. Understand the baseball positions and their abbreviations. Listed after each player’s name is an abbreviation: 1B, 2B and 3B mean first baseman, second baseman and third baseman, respectively. SS means shortstop. LF, CF and RF are outfielders who play in left, center and right field, respectively. P indicates a pitcher. You may also see PH, which indicates a pinch hitter, or PR, which indicates a pinch runner. That means a player replaced another player by batting or running for him. That player also takes over the replaced player’s field position.
3. Understand the abbreviation for batting statistics. From left to right, hitting statistics listed are AB (at-bats), R (runs scored), H (hits), RBI (runs batted in), BB (bases on balls, more commonly called walks), SO (strikeouts), LOB (number of runners left on base) and AVG (batting average).
4. Understand the hitting and baserunning summaries. This lists a group of categories, the players that fulfilled that category during the game and each player’s season total in that category in parenthesis. For example, if the summary says 2B: T. Burke (6), it means that T. Burke hit a double during the game and has hit six doubles during the season. The listing for home runs is slightly more complicated because it includes game information. For instance, 7th inning of B. Robert 0 on, 0 out, means the home run was hit in the seventh inning off pitcher B. Robert when there were no base runners and no outs had been made.
   Categories generally listed include 2B (doubles), 3B (triples), HR (home runs), HBP (batters hit by a pitch), RBI (runs batted in), S (sacrifice hits), SF (sacrifice flies) and GIDP (ground into double play). Also listed are runners in scoring position, 2 out and Team LOB (team left of base).
5. Understand the baserunning summary. Categories generally listed include SB (stolen bases) and CS (caught stealing).
6. Understand the fielding and baserunning summaries. Categories generally listed include E (errors) and DP (double plays. Outfield assists may also be listed.
7. Locate and understand the list of pitchers. Listed below the hitting summary is a list of the pitchers used by each team during the game and each pitcher’s statistics. Next to some pitchers’ names is information in parenthesis, such as (L 2-4). That means that pitcher is credited with a loss and his season record is 2-4 (2 wins and 4 losses). W indicates the winning pitcher. S indicated a save and is listed with the pitcher’s save count for the season. H indicates a hold, which means the pitcher had a save opportunity but left the game. BS indicates a blown save.
8. Understand pitching statistics. Categories are IP (inning pitched), H (hits allowed), R (runs allowed), ER (earned runs allowed), BB (walks issued), SO (strikeouts) and HR (home runs allowed). Also listed is PC-ST, which shows the pitch count and number of strikes thrown, and ERA, which stands for earned run average. A pitcher’s ERA is the mean number of runs given up per nine innings. So, if a pitcher has a 1.00 ERA, he will give up 1 run in nine innings.
9. Understand the pitching summary. Listed here are the number of batters faced, ground balls-fly balls and game scores. Ground balls-fly balls is the number of each type of hit off the pitcher. You may also see HBP (batters the pitcher hit with a pitch) and IBB (batters who successfully bunted off the pitcher).

Tips & Warnings

• A box score also might use abbreviations such as T for the time of the game, A for the number of people in attendance and U for the umpires who worked the game. It might also include the stadium and location, game weather and wind speed.