passed ball

noun

: a baseball pitch not hit by the batter that passes the catcher when it should have been caught and allows a base runner to advance

one of his trick pitches shot by his catcher for a passed ball—

John Drebinger

compare wild pitch

Examples of passed ball in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web After San Francisco scored its only run off Ryan on a Smith passed ball in the fourth, Ryan struck out Mike Yastrzemski with a 95-mph cut-fastball with runners on second and third to end the inning. —

Mike Digiovanna, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2024 The most consequential miscues, however, came on Turner’s two-base passed ball the following inning. —

Evan Webeck, The Mercury News, 3 May 2024 Saguaro had the bases loaded in the fourth after a batter reached on a strikeout passed ball. —

Richard Obert, The Arizona Republic, 15 May 2023 Arroyo advanced to second on a sacrifice by Wong (3 for 4), reached third on a Zunino passed ball, and scored when Verdugo grounded his seventh career walkoff hit through the left side of the infield for the 10th Red Sox comeback win of the year. —

Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Apr. 2023 See all Example Sentences for passed ball

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'passed ball.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.