If a baseball game makes it to the bottom of the ninth inning, does the game end as soon as the batting team takes the lead, or is the play allowed to continue until all runners score or take a base?
Say the score is tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth with runners on second and third.
Scenario 1) The batter hits a home run. Is the final score going to be 4-1?
Scenario 2) The batter gets a base hit and the runner on third scores. Does the game end right away, or does the runner on second get a chance to try to score?
A play in progress continues until it ends, as there is always the chance that, for example, the runner who scored what would be the winning run missed a base. Normally, the defense is allowed to appeal a play until the next pitch is thrown; however, if it was on what would be the last play of the game, they may appeal as long as the umpires are still on the field.
For scoring purposes, only the minimum number of runs needed to win the game are counted in this case, unless it was a home run that was hit over the outfield fence. Note that if the score is tied, there are ruuners on second and third base, and the batter hits a “ground rule double” (e.g. the ball bounces over the fence), the batter is credited with a single and only one run is scored.
Someone needs to add the nitpick for case 1) that the batter who hit the home run needs to actually circle the bases to get credit. It’s occasionally happened that he didn’t, and he only got credit for a single. Then the score for case 1) would be 2-1.
We’ve had examples of this sort of thing in the World Series.
In Game 6 of the 1993 World Series, Philadelphia led 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth with two men (Henderson and Molitor) on. Joe Carter hit a home run. Although Molitor was the winning run, the play continued until Carter scored. Final score 8-6.
Four years later, in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, the score was tied in the bottom of the eleventh. With the bases loaded (Counsell, Eisenreich, White) Edgar Renteria hit a single. The game was instantly concluded once the runner at third, Craig Counsell, had scored, and all runners had advanced a base to eliminate the possibility of a force out.
Essentially the same thing as 1997 also happened in 2001.
7.05
Each runner including the batter-runner may, without liability to be put out,
advance—
(a) To home base, scoring a run, if a fair ball goes out of the playing field in flight and
he touched all bases legally; or if a fair ball which, in the umpire’s judgment, would
have gone out of the playing field in flight, is deflected by the act of a fielder in
throwing his glove, cap, or any article of his apparel;
Another interesting case happened in a game between the Pirates and the Braves on May 26, 1959. Harvey Haddix, the pitcher for the Pirates, had a perfect game through twelve innings. In the bottom of the thirteenth, Felix Mantilla of the Braves reached base on an error, breaking up the perfect game. Eddie Matthews bunted him over, and then Hank Aaron walked, putting runners on first and second with one out. Joe Adcock came to the plate and hit one over the fence for what should have been a home run.
Somehow Aaron thought the ball was still in play, so after he touched second base and saw Mantilla score the winning run, he turned and walked to the dugout instead of continuing to third and then home. Adcock continued around the bases and was called out for passing the runner ahead of him when he passed the point where Aaron had abandoned the basepaths. Adcock was credited with a double and an RBI, and the final score was 1 - 0.
7.05
Each runner including the batter-runner may, without liability to be put out,
advance—
(f) Two bases, if a fair ball bounces or is deflected into the stands outside the first or third base foul lines; or if it goes through or under a field fence, or through or under a scoreboard, or through or under shrubbery or vines on the fence; or if it sticks in such fence, scoreboard, shrubbery or vines
However, 4.11(c) says:
If the home team scores the winning run in its half of the ninth inning (or its half of an extra inning after a tie), the game ends immediately when the winning run is scored. EXCEPTION: If the last batter in a game hits a home run out of the playing field, the batter-runner and all runners on base are permitted to score, in accordance with the base-running rules, and the game ends when the batter-runner touches home plate.
In other words, as I said earlier, a home run hit over the fence is a home run, but a “ground rule double” is only a single if the winning run was on third base.