Baseball official scoring question?

Question

Question on how you think this play should be scored.  With nobody out and a runner on first the batter hits a line drive up the middle to the pitcher.  The pitcher does not have enough time to react to field the ball, but does manage to make contact with his glove.  The deflection off of his glove goes to the shortstop who otherwise wouldn't have been able to get to it.  The short stop fields the ball with only enough time to get the runner at 2nd do to his proximity to the base, but a poor throw gets bobbled by the 2nd baseman and all runners end up safe.  
Is this a hit, fielders choice, or straight up error?  If it's an error who's the error on?  I would argue that you can't give the pitcher an error because he had no time to react, and you can't really expect "normal effort" to be able to get an out on a ball that was deflected by another infielder even though due to some luck, and slow base running he still had a decent shot at it.
I think this should be ruled a hit, but I could see how people could have different opinions.

18 gibbs 20 · Accepted Answer

If the shortstop's throw to second beat the runner but was dropped by the secondbaseman then it's a fielder's choice and an E-4.

Utter Chaos · Answer

Based on what you said:
"short stop fields the ball with only enough time to get the runner at 2nd"
"poor throw gets bobbled by the 2nd baseman"

It should be scored an error.  Whether the error is on the SS or the 2B depends on how bad the throw was.  Since you said "poor throw" I would score it E6.  The question is "Would a good throw have gotten the out at second?"  The "normal effort" argument would work if the SS was not able to field the ball.  Once he did the hard part which was fielding it all he had to do was the easy part which was make a throw.  That is where he failed.  Had he not fielded the ball then you could score it a hit since it was a tough play.

Since it was scored an error the pitcher would also get an assist for the deflection.  He contributed to the play and it's not his fault the SS made a bad throw.

Rich F · Answer

I agree with Chaos- E6. If he had a reasonable chance to force the runner at second with a good throw, and made a poor throw, causing everyone to be safe, I'd charge him with an error. How the ball ended up in his glove really has no bearing on the throwing error, as they are completely separate parts of the play.

Anonymous · Answer

Since the SS made a poor throw to 2nd it should be ruled an E6 and a fielder's choice for the batter.  If the bases were empty and the SS had no play at 1st then it should be ruled a hit.

Anonymous · Answer

The Official Scorer would have discretion on the call and it could go either way.Hit or error
on the SS.Bear in my mind that the Scorer has the option of changing the ruling.The 
important thing is that they get the call right.It should be ruled a hit because both the
pitcher and SS were reacting to a hard smash up the middle.Of course I could be wrong
and The Official Scorer could give an error.The O.S. wields a lot of power.

Baseball official scoring question?

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