Record your first at-bat

Save a plate appearance into the game it belongs to — the part people get wrong — and then the outcome, where the ball went and the RBIs.

An at-bat always belongs to a game, so the game is the first thing to settle rather than the last. The website gives you no way to get that wrong. The phone does, because it will let you start recording with no game chosen and ask you which one afterwards — and that question is the one people answer wrong, which is why at-bats turn up in last week's game.

On the website there is no recorder that stands on its own: the only way into it is from a game's own page, so whatever you record lands in the game you were looking at. If the game does not exist yet, make it first — New Game at the top of the sidebar, or New in the header of the Games page on a narrow window.

On your phone

  1. Open the Games tab and tap the game you are recording for. If it does not exist yet, tap + in the header and make it first.
  2. Tap Record, the round + button in the middle of the bottom bar. Because you are standing on that game's screen it records into that game and does not ask you again. On a game with nothing on it yet the screen offers it too: on one of your own games it is a Record your first at-bat card in the At-bats section, and on a team game it is Just record at-bats, under How do you want to track this game?. Both do the same thing.
  3. On a team game with somebody else on the roster the batter picker opens first: You, then Teammates, then Roster only. Whoever is due up or batted last can be pinned above them, marked Next up or Last up. Tap yourself.
  4. Tap the outcome. The title at the top of the screen reads "vs" and whoever you are playing, which is your check that this is the right game. If your league uses an outcome that is not in the grid, "Missing an outcome? Turn on extras" is the row at the foot of it.
  5. Tap where it went on the field, and the recorder moves on by itself. Tap Skip if you did not see where the ball landed.
  6. Pick a batted-ball type if the outcome has one, answer "How many RBIs?" and "Batter scored?", then tap Save. A "Saved!" tick confirms it, and the line after it has an Undo.
  7. A strikeout, a walk, an intentional walk and a hit by pitch skip all of that: they save the moment you tap them. The line that follows has an Undo, and on a walk or hit by pitch an Add RBI too, for the time the bases were loaded.

On the web

  1. Open the game you are recording for — from Games, or from the team's schedule.
  2. Click Record at-bat. On a game with nothing recorded yet it is the button on the "No at-bats yet" panel. After that it sits in the game's header beside the share and edit buttons on a wide window, and is the round + button at the bottom right on a narrow one.
  3. On a team game with somebody else on the roster, a picker asks who batted before the recorder opens. Choose yourself for your own at-bat.
  4. Pick the outcome. On a wide window every outcome is listed on the left and the field is on the right, so it is one screen; on a phone-sized one it is three steps, headed Outcome, Location and Details.
  5. Click the field where the ball went, and pick a batted-ball type if the outcome has one. Location is marked optional and really is — skip it and the at-bat still counts.
  6. Set RBI, and Scored if you came round yourself, then click the save button. On a wide window it reads Save and the outcome you picked, e.g. Save Single; on a phone-sized one it reads "Save, no RBI" until you set an RBI. On a wide window the line under the heading names the opponent, the date and the field, which is your check that this is the right game.
  7. A walk, an intentional walk, a hit by pitch and a strikeout have no more steps: they save the moment you pick them. The confirmation has an Undo, and on a walk or hit by pitch an Add RBI too, for the time the bases were loaded.

The phone also has a shortcut that does not start from a game, and it is worth knowing what it asks you. Tapping Record from Home or Stats with no game open opens a Select Game screen: anything dated today is listed under Today, everything earlier under its month, and Start a new game is the button at the top if today has no game yet. Two things it does on purpose — a game you have already marked Final is still listed, with a Final tag, so a plate appearance you forgot costs no extra steps; and a game dated in the future is not listed at all, because it is not the game you are playing now. A future-dated game stays reachable the ordinary way, through Games and then the game itself.

On your phone only

  1. Tap Record from Home or Stats with no game open. The Select Game screen opens.
  2. Tap the game under Today, or Start a new game if there isn't one yet.
  3. If you tap a game that is not dated today, "Recording for an earlier game?" asks first and offers Record here or Start a new game. That question is the one thing standing between you and an at-bat in the wrong game, so read the date it quotes before answering.
  4. From there it is the same recorder: outcome, where the ball went, RBIs.

Not available on the website.

Three things make up an at-bat, and only the first is required. The outcome is the play — a single, a strikeout, a walk — and it is the one thing neither app will save without. Where the ball went is a tap on the field, optional on both apps, and it is what the spray chart is drawn from. The RBIs are a counter you set yourself, except on a game you scored play by play, where they are worked out from where the runners finished.

If it did land in the wrong game, or on the wrong outcome, nothing is stuck — an at-bat can be edited or deleted from the game it is on.

Not sure what a stat on this screen means? The glossary explains it.

Related guides

Still stuck?

Try the rest of the guides or the support page. Sending feedback from inside the app reaches a real person.