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Stolen Base, Passed Ball, or Wild Pitch - how to score a runner's advance on a pitch not yet hit
| In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate. In baseball statistics, stolen bases are denoted by SB. Successful base-stealing requires not just simple running speed, but also good base-running instincts, quickness, and split-second timing.
A catcher is charged with a passed ball (PB) when he fails to hold or control a legally pitched ball that, with ordinary effort, should have been controlled, and as a result permits a runner or runners to advance. A runner who advances due to a passed ball is not credited with a stolen base unless he breaks for the base before the pitcher begins his delivery. A passed ball is not recorded as an error but with a PB. A closely related statistic is the wild pitch (WP). 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. Typically, pitches that are deemed to be ordinarily caught by the catcher, but are not, are ruled passed balls, while pitches that get by the catcher that are thought to have required extraordinary effort by the catcher in order to stop them are wild pitches. If the pitch was so low as to touch the ground, or so high that the catcher has to jump to get to it, or so wide that the catcher has to lunge for it, it is usually then considered a wild pitch and not a passed ball. Since Little League does not allow lead-offs, stealing a base is extremely difficult except for the fastest of runners. If the runner is able to take the base but is safe due to an error in the throw from the catcher or an error in the fielder catching or fielding the ball, then it is scored as an error on the appropriate defensive player and not a stolen base. |
 Different ways to score the runner advancing a base without the benefit of a hit
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