Baseball

Baseball is a batting game played from behind the plate. The pitcher mixes fastballs, changeups, curveballs and sliders, and you have to read each pitch, aim your swing and time it to the plate. Play a 10-out Home Run Derby or a quick 3-inning game against a CPU team. It’s a free baseball game that runs in your browser with no download, on a keyboard, a mouse or a phone’s touch screen.

How to play

Each pitch starts with a windup and then travels toward you. The dashed box is the strike zone, and the yellow circle is where your bat will meet the ball.

• Aim: move the mouse, or use the arrow keys or WASD, so the circle covers the spot where the ball will cross the plate. On a phone, tap that spot and you swing there.
• Swing: click, tap or press Space as the ball reaches the plate. If the ball isn’t inside the circle when you swing, you miss.
• Timing: a perfect swing gives you the most power and sends the ball up the middle. Swing early and you pull it to left field; swing late and it goes to right. Swing very early or very late and it rolls foul, and if you’re way off you miss completely.
• Lift: meet the ball dead center and you get line drives. Aim a little under the ball to lift it into the air for fly balls and home runs. Aim over the top and you’ll beat it into the ground.

Where the ball lands and how long it hangs in the air decide what happens next. Infielders can scoop up grounders and throw you out, and outfielders run down fly balls they can reach. Anything that drops between fielders is a hit: a single, a double off the wall, a triple into the gap, or a home run if it clears the fence (about 330 feet down the lines and 400 to center).

Game modes

• Home Run Derby: you get 10 outs. Any swing that isn’t a home run counts as an out, including fouls and misses, but taking a pitch costs nothing. Each homer is measured in feet, and your best derby and longest home run are saved.
• 3-Inning Game: your Comets visit the CPU’s Owls. You bat in the top of each inning with real balls, strikes and outs: four balls is a walk, three strikes is an out (a foul can’t be strike three), and three outs ends the half-inning. The Owls’ turn at bat is simulated and shown as a short play-by-play with runners on a field map. Runners advance on hits, walks and ground outs, and a deep fly ball scores a runner from third. If the game is tied after three innings it goes to extra innings, and a tie still standing after nine innings is declared a tie. Your win-loss record is saved.

Choose the pitcher before you start. A Rookie pitcher throws slower with gentler movement and gives you a bigger hitting circle. A Pro pitcher is the standard game, and an All-Star throws harder and breaks his pitches more.

Reading the pitches

• Fastball: the quickest pitch, with a little late carry. Get the swing started early.
• Changeup: it looks like a fastball but arrives later, sinking and fading to your left. Waiting a beat is the whole trick.
• Curveball: the slowest pitch. It floats up out of the hand and then drops sharply, so aim lower than it first looks.
• Slider: it breaks sideways to your right late in its flight.

A fading trail behind the ball shows the break, and when you don’t put the ball in play a ring marks where it crossed (green for a ball, red for a strike).

Tips

• Lay off pitches outside the box. A walk puts a runner on, and in the derby a take is free.
• Aim under the ball for homers. A centered swing makes line-drive singles. To clear the fence you need the circle slightly below the ball and near-perfect timing.

FAQ

Is this baseball game free?

Yes. It’s free to play with no account and nothing to install. Pick a mode and a pitcher and press Play ball.

Does it work on phones and Chromebooks?

Yes. On a phone or tablet, tap where the ball will cross the plate to swing there, and the page won’t scroll while you play. On a Chromebook or laptop, use the mouse or the keyboard in any modern browser.

Can I pitch or field?

No. This game is all about hitting. Fielding plays out automatically based on where the ball lands, and the CPU team’s turn at bat is simulated.

Want more sports games? Try Basketball Shootout or take spot kicks in Penalty Shootout. For other picks, see our list of the best browser baseball games.