Can a batter switch boxes in the middle of an at-bat?
Yes, any time he wants, unless the pitcher is on the rubber and ready to pitch. Step across then and he's out, and two strikes has nothing to do with it.
Have you ever had the other coach tell you that your hitter can’t switch sides after two strikes? It usually happens with a switch hitter. He’s been batting left against a righty, and now, with two strikes, he wants to try the other side. The other coach says he can’t. “Not after two strikes.”
He can. There’s no count anywhere in the rule.
A batter can move from one box to the other during an at-bat as often as he likes, with one restriction. He can’t do it once the pitcher is on the rubber in position to pitch. If he steps across then, he’s out. The rule doesn’t say anything about strikes, balls or how many times he switches.
Doing it legally is simple. He can ask for time, get it and then switch, or he can switch between pitches while the pitcher is off the rubber. The umpire just needs the pitcher not to be set up when the batter crosses. But if the batter waits until the pitcher’s ready and then hops over, that’s the out, and it doesn’t matter why he did it.
So where did the two-strike myth come from? I’m not sure anyone really knows. My guess is that two strikes is the count where a switch hitter is most likely to try something, so it’s probably the count where somebody first objected. We’ve all heard it called “the rule” in dugouts for decades — and it has never been in a rulebook.
In practice, this may come up twice a season. It could be a switch hitter facing a pitcher he’s never seen. It could be a player who steps in on the wrong side by mistake and wants to fix it. It could even be a team trying to mess with a pitcher’s head. All of it is legal, as long as the timing’s right.
A batter can also step out of the box and back in without switching sides. He just shouldn’t do it while the pitcher’s in his motion. That one isn’t the box-switching out, though. It’s a different rule, and the penalty is on the pitch: if the pitcher delivers while the batter is stepping out, the umpire calls it a ball or a strike as if he’d stayed in, and a strike there can be strike three.
If you’ve got a switch hitter, teach him to ask for time before he crosses over. It takes a couple of seconds, and it takes away the only version of this that’s ever an out.
Which rulebook? Official Baseball Rules 6.03(a)(2): the batter is out for stepping from one box to the other while the pitcher is in position ready to pitch. NFHS 7-3-3 and Little League 6.06(b) match. Nothing in any of them mentions the count.
Two strikes. A switch hitter wants to try the other side. Between pitches, with the pitcher off the rubber, he walks across the plate to the other box. Is that legal?
Still have a question? Ask Coach Fungo.
“Coach, I've read that rule, and there's nothing in it about two strikes.”
Is it a foul ball if a bunt hits the batter?
If he's still in the box when the bunt hits him, it's a foul ball, and with two strikes that foul bunt is strike three. If he's out of the box and the ball is fair, he's out.
“Bunt it and run. The longer he stands there watching it, the more likely it finds his foot.”
Running out of the baseline: when is the runner out?
There's no baseline until a fielder tries to tag the runner. Then it's a straight line from wherever the runner is to the base, with three feet on either side, and the chalk has nothing to do with it.
“A runner can go get a hot dog on his way to second, as long as no one's trying to tag him.”
The rules quiz
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