• Wugmeister@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 months ago

    Yes. Its part of the penalty system. If the batter fails to hit a ball that they could have hit, they get a strike, and they get three strikes before they have to go to the back of the line and let the next batter swing: if 3 batters strike out, the teams switch. If the pitcher throws so poorly that the batter would not have been able to hit the ball without lunging for it, the pitcher gets a “ball”. Four balls means the batter walks to first base (and everyone else walks to the next base). Unlike batting, pitchers do not rotate when they accumulate three balls, because pitching is so physically demanding that switching them out is already a regular process.