Innings

An innings, or inning, is a segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably baseball and cricket – during which a side takes its turn to bat. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is always spelled and pronounced with the terminal "s". In baseball, the singular form is inning and only the plural takes an "s".

Baseball

An inning in baseball consists of two halves. In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other team playing defense. A full inning consists of six outs, three for each team; and a regulation game consists of nine innings. The visiting team always bats first in each inning, and the visitors' turn at bat is often called the top of the inning, derived from the position of the visiting team at the top line of a baseball line score. The home team's half of an inning is also called the bottom of the inning, and the break between halves of an inning is called the middle of the inning. If the home team is leading in the middle of the ninth inning, or scores to take the lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, the game immediately ends in a home victory.

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If the score is tied after 9 innings, the game goes into extra innings until an inning ends with one team ahead of the other. As in the case of the ninth inning, a home team which scores to take a lead in any extra inning automatically wins, and the inning is considered complete at that moment regardless of the number of outs.

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In tense non-sports situations people in the US will sometimes

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say, "it's the bottom of the ninth with the home team behind,"

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meaning "there isn't much time to turn things around here."

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See also

• Baseball statistics