Wild pitch

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This article is about the baseball statistic. For the American hip hop record label, see Wild Pitch Records.

In baseball, a wild pitch (WP) is charged to a pitcher when a pitch is too high, too low, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to field capably, thereby allowing one or more runners to advance or to score.

A wild pitch usually passes the catcher behind home plate, often allowing runners on base easy advancement. Note that a runner who advances due to a wild pitch is not credited with a stolen base unless he breaks before the pitch is delivered.

A closely related statistic is the passed ball. As with many baseball statistics, whether a pitch that gets away from a catcher is a passed ball or wild pitch is at the discretion of the official scorer. The benefit of the doubt is given to the catcher if there is uncertainty; therefore, most of these situations are scored as wild pitches.

A wild pitch is not scored as an error.

A run that scores because of a wild pitch is counted as an earned run.

Nolan Ryan is the all-time leader in the category, at 277. Mickey Welch is second (274). After that, a large drop off is present, with the 3rd place Tim Keefe only having 233 all-time wild pitches.

Bill Stemmeyer still holds the single-season record, with 63 in 1886. The single-season record since 1901 is Red Ames with 30 in 1905. More recently, Rick Ankiel has struggled with wild pitches.

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