Finish a game and enter the final score

Mark a game final when it is over — the same step asks for the score when the game hasn't got one — and end a game you scored live from its play log instead.

Nothing in either app nags you to close a game out, and that is on purpose: most games are never marked final and nothing is wrong with them. A game sitting there with no FINAL on it is not an unfinished chore. What marking it final does is say the score standing on the game is the result, and put a FINAL badge on it wherever the game appears. On the phone it does one more thing: the game stops claiming today's slot in the Record shortcut's picker, so Start a new game goes back to being the obvious button there — the finished game stays listed, tagged Final, so a plate appearance you forgot still costs no extra steps.

The one state that genuinely costs you something is different: a game you played, recorded at-bats in, and never put a score on. Your win-loss record is worked out from scores, so a game with none is skipped — the night happened, you have the at-bats, and the result is quietly missing from your record and your win percentage. Both apps nudge about exactly that one case and nothing else, and the nudge goes away for good as soon as you answer it.

Entering the score is part of finishing rather than a separate errand. Marking a game final when it has no score opens the score editor there and then, and answering the nudge saves the score and closes the game in one write, so a game can never end up scored but still open. Skipping the editor is allowed — the game stays final with no score, which is a real answer for a result nobody wrote down — and so is the reverse: a score on today's game does not finish it, because you may still be playing.

The control only appears when there is something to close out: at least one at-bat, or a score. A game nobody recorded anything on and nobody put a score on is a game that never happened, so neither app offers to finish it — create it, play it, record something, and the row is there.

On your phone

  1. Open the game — from the Games tab, or from the team's schedule.
  2. Tap Mark game final, the quiet row under the score.
  3. If the game has no score, the score card opens on the spot with a stepper for each side, headed US and THEM. Step them with − and +, or tap a number and type it, then tap Save.
  4. The row now reads Final with Reopen beside it. Tapping Reopen opens the game back up — Final is a statement about the score, never a lock, so recording, editing and deleting all still work either way.

On the web

  1. Open the game — from Games, or from the team's schedule.
  2. Click Mark final. It is on the scoreboard itself at the top of the page, beside the score, rather than in the ⋯ menu — the one place somebody hunting for how to end a game actually looks.
  3. If the game has no score, two steppers open in place of the scoreboard straight away. Set each side with − and +, or click the number and type it, then click Save — Enter in either field saves as well.
  4. A FINAL badge takes the button's place. To undo it, open the ⋯ menu in the game's header and choose Reopen game.

On your phone

  1. Open a game from before today that has at-bats on it and no score.
  2. The row under the score reads Add the final score, with "This game isn't counted in your record yet" under it. Tap it.
  3. Set both sides and tap Save. The score and the final land in the same write, and the nudge does not come back.

On the web

  1. Open a game from before today that has at-bats on it and no score.
  2. Where the score would be, the page offers Add the final score, with "This game isn't counted in your record yet" beside it. Click it.
  3. Set both sides and click Save. That single save enters the score and marks the game final together, and the nudge is gone for good.

A game you scored live is finished from its play log instead, and neither app offers Mark final on one — the log owns the score, so the game ends where the plays were recorded. The row under the score takes you back in: it reads Resume live scoring while the game is being scored and "Scored live — view play log" once it has ended.

On your phone

  1. Open the game and tap the row under the score — Resume live scoring while it is still being scored, "Scored live — view play log" once it is over.
  2. Tap the ⋯ button in the top right of the scoring screen — it is labelled More options — and tap End game.
  3. Confirm it. The question is headed "End game?", quotes the score it is about to make final, and says you can reopen it afterwards.
  4. You often will not need the menu at all: once the game is decided — the home team is ahead after the top of the last inning, or a full last or extra inning ends with someone ahead — or the mercy-rule margin is reached, a banner on the scoring screen offers End game right there. A tie never gets one.
  5. Reopen scoring is in the same menu afterwards, and it works by undoing the end of the game, so the log picks up where it left off.

On the web

  1. Open the game and click the row under the scoreboard — Resume live scoring while the game is still being scored, "Scored live — view play log" once it is over.
  2. In the console's status bar, next to Undo, open the options button (labelled More options) and choose End game.
  3. The badge in that status bar changes to FINAL and the score beside it is the result. There is nothing else to save, and the game shows the same result everywhere the team looks at it.
  4. You often will not need the menu at all: once the game is decided — the home team is ahead after the top of the last inning, or a full last or extra inning ends with someone ahead — a banner at the top of the play column offers End game and asks before it ends the game. A tie never gets one.
  5. The same menu then offers Reopen scoring, which takes the end of the game back off and lets the log carry on.

A live-scored game that nobody ever ended is the one case worth going back for. Until the log ends it, the game is left out of your win-loss record entirely, so once its date has passed its row in the games list reads Unfinished rather than LIVE, and the row on the game's own screen says "Open the play log to end this game". That takes you to the same End game as above; there is no way to finish one of those from the game screen, and nothing closes it automatically, because that would invent a result nobody entered.

One last thing worth knowing about a plain game: marking it final changes nothing about what you can do to it. Every at-bat still opens, the score still edits, the box score still saves over it, and a teammate can still record into it. The one feature it does close is live scoring — Score this game live is not offered on a finished game, so a game you want to score play by play has to be reopened first.

Related guides

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