In baseball, a pitchout is a play that may be used if the defensive team believes that a baserunner is going to attempt a steal, or that a hit and run play is on. The pitcher intentionally throws a pitch high and outside, allowing the catcher to set himself for a quick throw to second or third base. This increases the chance that the baserunner will be caught stealing. The pitch counts as a ball. It differs from an intentional ball in that it is thrown harder. A view of the playing field at Busch Stadium in Saint Louis, Missouri. ... The all-time stolen base leader, Rickey Henderson, swipes third in 1985 In baseball statistics, stolen bases (denoted by SB) is a count of the number of bases successfully stolen by a player. ... Hit and run is the act of hitting an object with a vehicle and leaving the location of the incident. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The position of the catcher Catcher is a position played in baseball. ... In baseball, a player is charged with a caught stealing when, as a runner, the player attempts to advance from one base to another without the ball being struck by a batter, but is put out by a fielder while making the attempt. ...
See also:List of baseball pitches In baseball, a pitch is the act of throwing a baseball toward home plate to start a play. ...
A pitchout is a strategy used by the defensive team with a potential base stealer on base.
Strategy: Pitchouts increase the number of opposing runners that are caught stealing, but also cause the pitcher to get behind in the count more frequently.
Pitchouts are most useful for teams with a weak throwing arm behind the plate, but good control pitchers on the mound who can fight back from being behind in the count.
They then peel off in sequence (the "pitchout" or "break") and spiral down to a landing in rapid succession, usually staggering their landings across the runway to speed things up.
In this manner, a flight of four aircraft can start a pitchout "over the numbers" and be completely down and clear of the active runway in under 90 seconds (which is about the time most of us normally take to fly from midfield downwind to half-mile final).
To avoid this, flight leaders will abort a pitchout and go around if there is traffic further along than midfield on their downwind leg.