baseball statistics Baseball statistics play an important role in evaluating the progress of a player or team. Since the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and normally players act individually rather than performing in clusters, the sport lends itsel ...

, Batters Faced (BF), also known as Total Batters Faced (TBF) or Batters Facing Pitcher (BFP) is the number of

batters Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

who made a

plate appearance In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runner ...

before the

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in a game or in a season. For a given game, the number of plate appearances for an offense is 3×(Innings) + (Runs scored) + (Runners left on base).

Major league records

The major league record for batters faced in a career belongs to

Cy Young Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered th ...

, who faced 29,565 batters between 1890 and 1911.

Will White William Henry "Whoop-La" White (October 11, 1854 – August 31, 1911) was an American baseball pitcher and manager from 1875 to 1889. He played all or parts of 10 seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Cincinnati Reds in the National ...

of the Cincinnati Reds holds the single season record; he faced 2,906 batters in 1879. The last pitcher to face 1,500 or more batters in a single season was

Wilbur Wood Wilbur Forrester Wood Jr. (born October 22, 1941) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. In a 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched for the Boston Red Sox (1961–64), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1964–65), and the Chi ...

of the 1973 Chicago White Sox. On May 1, 1920,

Leon Cadore Leon Joseph "Caddy" Cadore (November 20, 1891 – March 16, 1958) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1924. Early life Born in Chicago, Illinois, Cadore was orphaned at 13 and went to live with his uncle, ...

of the Brooklyn Robins faced 96 Boston Braves batters, an MLB single game record dating back to at least 1901. Oakland's Steve McCatty is the last pitcher to face 50 or more batters in a game. McCatty pitched to 51 batters in a 14-inning complete game loss to the Seattle Mariners on August 10, 1980.

Mike Myers Michael John Myers OC (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. His accolades include seven MTV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollyw ...

made 314 appearances in which he faced just one opposing batter per game, also a record.

No batters faced

It is possible for a pitcher to participate in a game without officially facing a batter. This can happen when a baserunner is picked off or caught stealing to end either the inning or the game. For example, in a game between the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

on August 4, 2016, San Francisco's Sergio Romo entered the game in the bottom of the 9th inning with the game tied and 2 out. Romo threw four pitches to Aaron Altherr before César Hernández was caught stealing second base to end the inning, after which Romo was replaced. The Giants went on to win the game in

extra innings Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to break a tie. Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven innings; in Little Lea ...

and Romo was the

winning pitcher Winning may refer to: * Victory Film * ''Winning'' (film), a 1969 movie starring Paul Newman * '' Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman'', a 2015 documentary by Adam Carolla and Nate Adams Music * ''Winning'', an album by Ten Foot Pole, 2022 ...

despite never officially facing a batter. A pitcher could also not record a batter faced if he gets injured and has to be replaced before the completion of a plate appearance.

Larry Yount Lawrence King Yount (born February 15, 1950) is a former professional baseball player. Yount (whose younger brother is Hall of Famer Robin Yount) shares the unique distinction of being one of two pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB) history t ...

holds the distinction of being the only pitcher in major league history to appear in the record books without ever having officially faced a batter. In Yount's case this was also true in a literal sense as he was injured while throwing a warm-up pitch on his debut and never entered the game, but was credited with doing so due to having already been announced.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batters faced Pitching statistics

Major league records

No batters faced

See also

References