The Nine Innings
A game is scheduled for nine innings, and each inning has two halves. The visiting team bats in the ‘top’ of the inning and the home team in the ‘bottom.’ Because the home team bats last, it always gets the final chance to answer.
The Batting Order
Each team sets a lineup of nine hitters before the game and bats in that fixed order all game long; after the ninth hitter, it loops back to the first. The leadoff hitter is picked to get on base, while the third, fourth, and fifth spots — the heart of the order — hold the best run producers.
Substitutions
A player who leaves the game cannot come back; substitutions are permanent. Managers use that rule to bring in fresh relief pitchers, pinch-hitters, and defensive replacements as the game develops, and most teams use several pitchers in a single game.
Extra Innings and the Walk-Off
If the score is tied after nine innings, play continues inning by inning until one team leads at the end of a completed inning. When the home team scores the winning run in the bottom of the ninth or later, the game ends instantly — a ‘walk-off,’ because the winners simply walk off the field.
The Rhythm to Watch
Once you track the inning, the score, the count, and the outs, a game stops being noise and becomes a story — a chain of small, countable decisions. That structure is exactly what makes baseball the most predictable major sport, and what the Ra model reads each night.