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baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
, to tag up is for a
baserunner In baseball, base running is the act of running from base to base, performed by members of the team at bat. Base running is a tactical part of the game with the goal of eventually reaching home base (home plate) to score a run. Batters strive t ...
to retouch or remain on their starting base (the
time-of-pitch In baseball, there are two legal pitching positions: the windup, and the set. Colloquially, the set is often referred to as "the stretch", although this term actually only refers to one part of the pitching motion when pitching from the set. Defi ...
base) until (after) the ball is first touched by a fielder. By rule, baserunners must tag up when a hit ball is
caught Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket. A batsman is out caught if the batsman hits the ball, from a legitimate delivery, with the bat, and the ball is caught by the bowler or a fielder before it hits the ground. If the ball h ...
before it bounces by a fielder, and in such situations, are
out Out may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 * ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander * ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...
if any fielder with possession of the ball touches their starting base before they do. After a legal tag up, runners are free to attempt to advance, even if the ball was caught in foul territory. On long fly ball outs, runners can often gain a base; when a runner scores by these means, this is called a sacrifice fly. On short fly balls, runners seldom attempt to advance after tagging up, due to the high risk of being thrown out.


Putting out a runner who is required to tag up

When a baserunner fails to tag up on a caught fly ball (for instance, if they started running too early, thinking the ball would not be caught), they may be "doubled up/off", which results in them being called out. To double a runner off, a fielder must touch the runner's starting base while in possession of the ball, before the runner returns to the base. If the baserunner appeared to tag up, but a fielder suspects the baserunner may have left the base too early (thus failing to legally tag up), the fielder may attempt to double the runner off by touching the runner's starting base while controlling the ball, before the next pitch is thrown. This is considered a type of
appeal play In baseball, an appeal play occurs when a member of the defensive team calls the attention of an umpire to an infraction which he would otherwise ignore. Appeal play situations A runner shall be called out, after a successful live ball appeal, if ...
.Major League Baseball Rules
Rule 7.10(a) If the umpire agrees that the runner did not retouch after the ball was touched by a fielder, the umpire will call the runner out, and anything else the runner did during the play (such as score a run) is negated. Doubling a runner off is considered a "time play" (as opposed to a force play), which means that even if the doubling-off is the third out of an inning, any runs which score before the double-off will count (unless the run was scored by the same runner that was doubled off, in which case the run will not count in any situation).


References

{{baseball Baseball rules