How to Watch Baseball

Hit and Run

A Good Stunt, If You Can Do It

Stan Musial, from the photograph printed with his chapter.

By Stan Musial,Outfielder and Batting Champion, St. Louis Cardinals

Pages 12–13 · Phillips Petroleum Company, 1953

To advance a base runner without bunting, a clever batter frequently employs the hit and run play. Some believe the play is misnamed; that it should be called the “run and hit” because the base runner starts running before the batter hits the ball.

The batter flashes a sign to the base runner when he wants him to start with the next pitch. He should flash the sign at a strategic time — when the pitcher will try to throw the ball through the strike zone.

If the batter knows a pitcher likes to get ahead of the hitter and almost invariably tries to get his first pitch in the strike zone, it is good strategy for the batter to flash the sign before the first pitch.

The best time for the batter to flash the hit and run sign is when he is ahead of the pitcher: one ball and no strikes or two balls and one strike. In such cases, the pitcher should be trying to get the next ball in the strike zone.

Once the batter flashes the sign, he should make every effort to swing at the next pitch regardless of where the pitcher throws it.

The base runner does not run with the same abandon on the hit and run as on the steal. When the pitcher begins his delivery the runner starts for the next base. But after taking a few strides he looks toward the plate to see how the batter has hit the ball. By doing this he can sometimes save himself from being doubled up in the event the batter hits a line drive directly into a fielder’s hands.

The object of the hit and run is to advance a runner more than one base, if possible. That’s why it is used with a runner on first and one out. In such a situation, a sacrifice bunt is not considered good baseball unless the batter happens to be a weak-hitting pitcher.

In attempting to advance the runner more than one base it helps for the batter to hit the ball behind the runner rather than in front of him. That’s why you often see even a right-handed hitter try to poke the ball into right field, after he has started the runner from first. A runner from first can reach third more easily on a single to right field because the outfielder has a longer throw to make. Of course, a fast runner can go from first to third on a single to left field, but a slow runner finds it a tough job.

Some batters do not always try to hit behind the runner. Instead, they try to figure out whether the shortstop or second baseman is going to cover second as the runner starts with the pitch. If they see the shortstop edging toward second, they try to poke the ball through the spot deserted by the shortstop.

So when you see a runner on first with one out,

The Hit and Run
  1. 1An ordinary lead — nothing that would give the play away or invite a pick-off.
  2. 2When the pitcher begins his delivery the runner starts for the next base — but after taking a few strides he looks toward the plate to see how the batter has hit the ball.
  3. 3A right-handed hitter pokes the ball behind the runner, on the ground, through the hole the second baseman left covering second. The right fielder has to come in on it — and then has the longer throw to make.
  4. 4A runner from first can reach third more easily on a single to right field, because the outfielder has a longer throw to make.
  5. 5He has it, well out in right, with the runner already rounding second.
  6. 6The right fielder sets and fires to third, but the extra distance has already given the runner the extra base.
Adapted from the diagram on page 13: “Hit-and-Run: right-handed batter hits behind runner into right field. Longer throw from right gives runner better chance to advance two bases.”