How to Read a Baseball Box Score

A baseball box score is one of the most information-dense summaries in all of sports. A single table packs an entire nine-inning game — 27 batters retired per side, often 300+ pitches thrown, dozens of individual plate appearances — into something you can read in under two minutes. If you know how to read one fluently, you can reconstruct almost any game just from the numbers.

Box scores have been printed in newspapers since the 1870s. The modern format is remarkably similar to what readers found in the New York Tribune after an 1876 Cubs game. Today you can find them on Baseball Nerd's scores page for every live and completed MLB game. This guide walks through every section from top to bottom.

The Linescore: The Game at a Glance

At the very top of any box score is the linescore — the grid that shows runs scored in each inning. It looks like this:

Each numbered column is one inning. The numbers in each cell are how many runs that team scored in that inning. The three rightmost columns — R, H, E — are the game totals: Runs, Hits, and Errors.

In the example above, the Yankees scored 2 runs in the second inning and 1 in the fifth, for 3 total. The Red Sox tied it with 2 in the fourth and 1 in the eighth. The Yankees had 7 hits and committed 1 error; Boston had 6 hits and were errorless. The game ended 3–3 after nine (this would go to extra innings).

The linescore is the best way to understand the narrative of a game — when was it tied? When did one team pull ahead? Was it a blowout by the third inning or a tight game throughout? All of that context lives in those nine columns.

If the home team (the bottom row) leads after 8.5 innings, they don't bat in the ninth — you'll see an "X" in that cell instead of a number. That's why home teams sometimes appear to have played fewer innings in the linescore.

The Batting Section

Below the linescore, each team's batting order is listed, usually with the visiting team first. Each row is one player. Here are the column headers and what they mean:

Column	Full Name	What It Means
AB	At-Bats	Official times up to bat (excludes walks, HBP, sac bunts, sac flies)
R	Runs	Times the player crossed home plate to score a run
H	Hits	Number of times they reached base via a hit
RBI	Runs Batted In	Runners who scored as a direct result of this player's plate appearance
BB	Walks (Base on Balls)	Times they drew a four-pitch walk
SO or K	Strikeouts	Times they struck out swinging or looking
LOB	Left on Base	Runners left stranded on base when the player made an out
AVG	Batting Average	Their season average after this game

Notice that AB (at-bats) and plate appearances (PA) are different. If a player bats five times but one of those appearances ends in a walk and another ends in a sacrifice fly, they are credited with only 3 ABs even though they had 5 PAs. This distinction matters because batting average uses ABs in the denominator, which can inflate it slightly.

Positional abbreviations appear next to the player's name. C = catcher, 1B = first base, 2B = second base, 3B = third base, SS = shortstop, LF/CF/RF = left/center/right field, DH = designated hitter, P = pitcher. You may also see a dash with a second position (e.g., "LF-CF") indicating the player moved positions during the game.

Reading Between the Lines

A player who goes 0-for-4 with an RBI had exactly one run batted in from an at-bat that didn't result in a hit — that means a sacrifice fly (a fly ball caught for an out but deep enough to score a runner from third), since a sac fly doesn't count as an at-bat. Similarly, a player can go 0-for-3 with a run scored — they were walked or hit by a pitch, got on base, and eventually scored.

The LOB column is often underappreciated. A team that leaves 12 runners on base in a game likely had plenty of opportunities they didn't convert. High team LOB is often the story behind a frustrating offensive output despite getting a lot of hits.

The Pitching Section

Below the batting totals for each team, the pitchers who appeared in the game are listed in order, with the winner, loser, and save noted. Here are the pitching columns:

Column	Full Name	What It Means
IP	Innings Pitched	Full innings retired (partial innings shown as .1 and .2)
H	Hits Allowed	Hits given up during their time pitching
R	Runs Allowed	Total runs scored while they were pitching (earned + unearned)
ER	Earned Runs	Runs that scored without the help of an error
BB	Walks	Batters walked (base on balls)
SO or K	Strikeouts	Batters struck out
HR	Home Runs Allowed	Home runs hit while they were pitching
ERA	Earned Run Average	Updated season ERA after this game's performance

Innings Pitched in Decimal Form

You will often see IP listed as 5.2 or 6.1 — this is not a decimal. Baseball uses a thirds-based system. An inning has three outs. So 5.1 means five full innings plus one out into the sixth inning (one-third of an inning). 5.2 means five innings plus two outs into the sixth (two-thirds of an inning). A starter who goes 6.0 is credited with six complete innings (18 outs).

Win, Loss, and Save

The winning pitcher (W) is the pitcher who was the pitcher of record when their team took the lead for good. The losing pitcher (L) is the pitcher who was in the game when the opponent scored the go-ahead run. The save (SV) goes to a reliever who finishes the game for a winning team under specific qualifying conditions (usually protecting a lead of three or fewer runs in the ninth inning or later).

One subtlety: a pitcher can "earn" the win even if they give up a lead, as long as their team retakes the lead and holds it. The win rule has quirks that often frustrate modern analysts, since a starting pitcher who throws five strong innings in a low-scoring game can lose the decision if their team scores late, while a reliever who faces one batter can earn the win.

Footnotes and Play Notes

Below the pitching lines, most box scores list additional game events: doubles (2B), triples (3B), home runs (HR) with the run count, stolen bases (SB), caught stealing (CS), double plays (DP), triple plays (TP), wild pitches (WP), passed balls (PB), errors (E) by player, and sometimes time of game and attendance.

These notes let you reconstruct specific plays. If you see "HR – Smith (14)" it means Smith hit his 14th home run of the season. "DP – Rodriguez, Alvarez, Abreu" means those three players combined to turn a double play (in order: fielder who started it, middle man, first baseman). "SB – Adell (12)" means Adell stole his 12th base.

Putting a Box Score Together

Once you can read all three sections fluently — linescore, batting, pitching — you can reconstruct the broad shape of any game in about 90 seconds. Which pitcher dominated early? The pitching line will show innings with no runs and strikeout totals. When did the game turn? The linescore shows exactly which inning the momentum shifted. Who was responsible for the key hit? The batting section shows RBIs by player and at-bat.

Baseball Nerd's Scores page shows detailed box scores for every MLB game, updated live during the season. Click any game card to see the full breakdown — linescore, full batting and pitching lines, and play-by-play highlights.