Is Hit By Pitch an At Bat or Plate Appearance in Baseball? [HBP]


Baseball’s official rules for an at bat and a plate appearance can be a bit confusing. One unique play in baseball is the hit by pitch. How is HBP scored in baseball? Is hit by pitch an at bat, or just a plate appearance?

A hit by pitch does not count as an official at bat, but it does count as a plate appearance. For example, if you see a player is 1 for 4 with a HBP (hit by pitch), that means the player has five plate appearances in the game. The player has four official at-bats but five total plate appearances due to the fact that the hit by pitch counts as a plate appearance, but not an official at bat.

In this article let’s take a closer look at how a hit by pitch is scored in baseball. Let’s also discuss briefly how plate appearances differ from at-bats, and why it matters.

Does Hit By Pitch Count as an At Bat or Plate Appearance?

Is Hit By Pitch an At Bat?

As we discussed above, a hit by pitch does not count as an official at bat in baseball.

If you see a player is 1 for 4 with a hit by pitch, that means the player has five total plate appearances in the game. The player has four official at-bats and five total plate appearances due to the fact that the hit by pitch counts as a plate appearance, but not an official at bat.

Is Hit By Pitch a Plate Appearance?

Yes, a hit by pitch does count as a plate appearance in baseball (but it does not count as an official at bat). Plate appearances are often overlooked as an important stat when grading a player.

When you are watching a game, you may see that a player is 1 for 3 with a HBP. That means that the player has been up to bat four times, but the “1 for 3” only refers to the official at bats the player received.

A hit by pitch (HBP) is counted almost exactly the same way that a walk is in the official scorekeeping. When a player, his clothing, or any piece of his equipment other than his bat is struck by a pitched ball, he is considered a “hit batsman.”

As such, the batter is entitled to first base just like a walk. The biggest difference in the two things is that the ball is “dead” when a player is hit by a pitch so that no other player can advance unless he is forced to the next base. When a player is walked, he and the other runners on the base paths can advance until either they stop, score, or are tagged out.

One of the more important statistics in baseball is a player’s on base percentage. A player’s on base percentage is, as the name suggests, the number of times a player reaches base compared to the number of at bats, walks, HBP, and sacrifice flies the player has. This is calculated by a simple equation: (Hits + Walks + Hit by Pitch) / (At Bats + Walks + Hit by Pitch + Sacrifice Flies).

So, although a hit by pitch is not an official at bat, it does still count as a plate appearance. And because it still counts as a plate appearance, it is factored into certain statistics such as OBP.

How Do At Bats Compare to Plate Appearances in Baseball?

A plate appearance refers to a batter’s turn at the plate regardless of the outcome as long as that appearance is completed. For instance, if a player is thrown out on the base paths to end an inning while the batter is still up, it does not count as a plate appearance.

Similarly, if a balk or wild pitch scores the winning run of a game, the player at the plate also does not get a plate appearance. Any other time a player gets up to bat and completes, whether with an out or by reaching base, his time at the plate, he has had a plate appearance.

Plate appearances are statistically important because it is the measure that allows players to compete for year end awards or lifetime achievements. For instance, if a player has had 20 plate appearances during a year, and had nine hits and two walks, his batting average would be higher than any other player’s in history.

However, to qualify to be in contention for a batting title, which is given to the player with the highest batting average each year, that player must have at least 502 plate appearances. When average out for an entire year, that means a player must average 3.1 plate appearances per game for an entire 162-game schedule. Other than qualifying for year end and career awards, plate appearances do not have as much meaning as official at bats.

An official at bat occurs when a player reaches base on either a hit, fielder’s choice, or error, or when a batter is put out on a non-sacrifice fly/bunt play. Official at bats do not mean as much for awards, but they are the standard of record keeping.

Any time you are watching a game in later innings and you see that a player is 1 or 3, that means that player has had three official at bats that game. Official at bats are used more often and spoken about more often than plate appearances.

To read about other scoring issues in baseball, visit our articles linked below:

A person’s batting average is calculated by dividing the number of hits that player had with the number of official at bats during a season. As we discussed in this article, a hit by pitch does not count as an official at bat, but it does count as a plate appearance.

Paul Johnson

Paul has been with us from our beginnings. He focuses on a wide range of sports, including NFL, NBA, MLB and golf.

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