Baseball Rules for Beginners: Innings, Outs, Strikes & Scoring Explained (2026)

By Sarah Miller · May 26, 2026

Basic Game Structure

A baseball game consists of 9 innings, with each inning divided into a top half where the away team bats and bottom half where the home team bats. Each half-inning ends when the fielding team records 3 outs. The team with the most runs after 9 innings wins.

The Strike Zone

A strike is called when the batter swings and misses, the ball passes through the strike zone without the batter swinging, or the batter hits a foul ball with fewer than two strikes. The strike zone extends from the batters knees to the midpoint between their shoulders and the top of their pants.

How Outs Are Made

The three most common outs are strikeouts with 3 strikes, fly outs by catching a batted ball before it touches the ground, and force outs by tagging a base before a runner arrives when they are forced to advance. Ground outs and tag outs round out the common methods.

Foul Balls

A ball hit outside the first-base and third-base lines is a foul ball. Foul balls count as strikes, except when the batter already has two strikes. In that case, foul balls do not add another strike unless bunting. A foul ball caught in the air is an out.

Scoring Runs

A run scores when a batter safely touches all four bases in order. The most common way to score is to hit the ball, advance on subsequent hits by teammates, and come home. A home run where the ball goes over the outfield fence scores the batter and all runners on base.

Extra Innings and Ties

If the score is tied after 9 innings, the game goes to extra innings. Each extra inning follows the same format. In MLB, since 2020, each extra inning starts with a runner on second base to speed up resolution.

Common Beginner Mistakes

New fans often confuse balls vs strikes where 4 balls means a walk and 3 strikes means an out, fair vs foul territory, and the infield fly rule which is an automatic out on easy pop-ups to prevent intentional drops for double plays.