If a runner gets on base on an error, not a base hit, and the error is on the pitcher, does the pitcher get charged with an earned run if the runner scores? My gut tells me no, but still I think “maybe.”
Don’t have a cite handy, but as I recall, an error is an error. Ergo, no earned run.
3 (e) seems to be the relevant point but I don’t know how authoritative this site is.
Actually it appears in the official rules under 10.18 link
Now, time for me to quit posting in haste and get my facts straight.
For the benefit of other interested parties, the exact language is
Thanks CapnPitt (I remember you from WPTT when I was a kid, ah UHF) and Quercus. The other night I saw Josh Fogg muff Chan Ho Park’s sac bunt and made me want to ask this question.
I found the earned run rule fascinating to read. A player who reaches on a wild pitch is earned but not on a passed ball. I also found it interesting that a run is not earned the player reaches:
So if a catcher drops a popup foul ball and the batter then hits a homerun, the homerun is not an earned run? Very interesting and subtle.
The logic behind this, I believe, is to separate the pitcher’s role as a pitcher from his role as a fielder. If you allow a run scored because of a pitcher’s fielding error then you’re punishing him twice: his ERA (pitching) and fielding percentage (fielding) both take a hit. If it isn’t earned, only his fielding percentage takes a hit: he’s punished in the stats, but not for his pitching, as he pitched well enough to get an out even if he flubbed the fielding allowing someone to score.
I hadn’t heard the rule that a wild pitch is an earned run while a passed ball is not. A wild pitch is the pitcher’s fault in his role as a pitcher, so his pitching stats should be affected. A passed ball is the catcher’s fault and should not affect his battery-mate’s pitching stats.
I meant to say that I hadn’t heard that rule but it makes sense.
An error is an error, but I think it isn’t the usual practice to give the pitcher a fielding error. If the ball comes back at him pretty fast, bounces of his glove, stays in the infield and the runner makes first safely I think it’s usually scored as a hit.
This opinion subject to correction on later data.
A pitcher’s not gonna get an error on a comebacker. A pitcher’s gonna get an error when his throw to first on a bunt ends up in right field, or when he bobbles the catch covering first.
Errors aren’t often given to pitchers, mainly, I think, because they can’t reasonably be expected to make a lot of plays. When a ball is hit (not bunted) right back to the pitcher, he has literally a second or less to react, and very few scorekeepers will say “reasonably, he should have made that play” even if by chance he happens to get a glove on it.
If the ball hits him and, say, bounces off his leg, and he can’t find it in time, he’s often not given an error because a ball bounced off the pitcher is unpredictable and hard to locate.
Also, the pitcher gets a lot fewer chances. You’ll almost never see the pitcher catching a pop fly, for example, because all the other infielders, including the catcher, have priority as long as they have time to get there, and they usually do on a pop fly. Fewer chances, fewer errors. Just as an example, last year Roger Clemens (pitcher) made 0 errors on 36 total chances. Morgan Ensberg (3rd baseman) made 9 errors on 270 total chances.
About the only time the pitcher gets a chance to make an error are on bunts right to him or when he messes up covering first.
Sure, pitchers get throwing errors.
And even infielders are excused from an error on really hot shots, but I think scorers are more forgiving of pitchers because they are not really in good position to recover from their pitch and move a long way to field a ground ball.
Actually, I remember when Tommy John was charged with three errors on one play.
Zev Steinhardt
It’s so much fun to watch the experts screw up. My wife and I went up to Comisky Park to watch Bob Feller pitch one day.
During the game the Sox got a man on first and the batter hit a bouncer about 20 ft to the left of 2nd base which Lou Boudreau fumbled. In a panic to get the double play he threw hurriedly to Joe Gordon on second base and the ball went right through him. Gordon chased it down and in an effort to get the runner at third threw about 10 ft. over the third baseman’s head while Sox runners happily circled the bases. As a former lousy infielder I couldn’t have wished for more.
Yeah, but he had surgery to correct that! 
I think that the strange part of this scenario is that the batter still gets credit for the home run. If the batter hits a fair fly ball to an outfielder, which is dropped for an error, then he’s charged with an at bat. If that ball happens to be foul when it’s dropped, then he gets another chance. The pitcher is off the hook for whatever the batter does, but the batter still has a chance to redeem himself. Happened last week when Vladimir Guerrero’s foul ball was bungled, then he homered in the same at bat.
I’m a little confused. Does that mean that in the V. Guerrero situation that he was 1 for 2 in that exchange?
It varies by pitcher. Jamie Moyer, of my beloved but painfully hapless Mariners, is fairly proud of his ability to field his position, and is generally aggressive about waving off any approaching infielders if there’s a pop fly coming down close to the mound. I’ll agree that most pitchers would stay out of the way in that kind of situation, though.
I’ve never heard of a batter getting to take a base for a wild pitch! The runners advance, but not the batter. Also, a dropped foul ball is not scored as an error. An error is in relation to the fielding of what would otherwise have been scored as a hit!
Also, isn’t it the case that the batter does not advance to first on a pass ball unless the pass ball occurs after the third strike (but not caught by the catcher)?
Also, for clarity in relation to the OP, the pitcher cannot make an error when pitching to the plate. A wild pitch is not an error. Thus, as it was said, a pitcher only makes an error as a fielder. Last, for the OP, an error is an error. It may have already been explained above that, even if the pitcher did not make the error, the run would be unearned (as descibed in the OP).
Feel free to correct me…I decided after the last baseball strike to quit patronizing the rich and famous for the sake of the poor and exploited. - Jinx
No.