Порядок ударов в бейсболе

Sequence in which the members of the offense bat against the pitcher
the term "batting order" as used in baseball

In baseball, the batting order or batting lineup is the sequence in which the members of the offense take their turns in batting against the pitcher. The batting order is the main component of a team's offensive strategy. In Major League Baseball, the batting order is set by the manager, who before the game begins must present the home plate umpire with two copies of his team's lineup card, a card on which a team's starting batting order is recorded. The home plate umpire keeps one copy of the lineup card of each team, and gives the second copy to the opposing manager. Once the home plate umpire gives the lineup cards to the opposing managers, the batting lineup is final and a manager can make changes only under the Official Baseball Rules governing substitutions. If a team bats out of order, it is a violation of baseball's rules and subject to penalty. According to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, a team has "batted around" when each of the nine batters in the team's lineup has made a plate appearance, and the first batter is coming up again during a single inning. Dictionary. com, however, defines "bat around" as "to have every player in the lineup take a turn at bat during a single inning." It is not an official statistic. Opinions differ as to whether nine batters must get an at bat, or if the opening batter must bat again for "batting around" to have occurred. In modern American baseball, some batting positions have nicknames: "leadoff" for first, "cleanup" for fourth, and "last" for ninth. Others are known by the ordinal numbers or the term # hole (3rd place hitter would be 3 hole). In similar fashion, the third, fourth, and fifth batters are often collectively referred to as the "heart" or "meat" of the batting order, while the seventh, eighth, and ninth batters are called the "bottom of the lineup," a designation generally referring both to their hitting position and to their typical lack of offensive prowess. At the start of each inning, the batting order resumes where it left off in the previous inning; it does not reset to start with the #1 hitter again. If the current batter did not finish his at bat during the previous inning (because another baserunner becomes the third out, by being picked off or caught stealing), he will lead off the next inning with the pitch count reset to 0 0. While this ensures that the players all bat roughly the same number of times, the game will almost always end before the last cycle is complete, so that the #1 hitter (for example) almost always has one plate appearance more than the #9 hitter, which is a significant enough difference to affect tactical decisions. This is not a perfect correlation to each batter's official count of "at bats," as a sacrifice (bunt or fly) that advances a runner, or a walk (base on balls or hit by pitch) is not recorded as an "at bat" as these are largely out of the batter's control, and does not hurt his batting average (base hits per at bats.)

Early forms of baseball or rounders from the mid 19th century did not require a fixed batting order; any player who was not on base could be called upon to bat. The concept of a set batting order is said to have been invented by Alexander Cartwright, who also instituted rules such as the foul ball and tagging the runner (as opposed to pegging him with the ball), and devised the shortstop position. However, in the 1880s, organized baseball began mandating that the batting order be disclosed before the first pitch.

The first player in the batting order is known as the leadoff hitter. The leadoff batter is traditionally an individual with a high on base percentage, plate discipline, bat control, good speed, and the ability to steal bases. Baseball managers tend to place hitters who are most likely to reach base ahead of the clean up man, so that the fourth batter can "clean" the bases by driving these baserunners home to score runs. His main goal is to drive in runs, although he is expected to score runs as well. Hitting cleanup requires an exceptional level of talent, and the ability to deliver big hits in important situations (such as the bases loaded with two out). Examples of #4 hitters include Edgar Martínez, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Eddie Mathews, Norm Cash, Willie McCovey, Billy Williams, Tony Pérez, Fred McGriff, Eddie Murray, Daniel Murphy, Alex Rodriguez, Prince Fielder, David Ortiz, and Ryan Howard. The theory behind the cleanup hitter is that, at the beginning of the game, if at least one of the first three batters reaches base with a single base hit or walk, a home run will result in two or more runs rather than just one (a "solo" home run). If all three players reach base, thereby loading the bases, the cleanup hitter has the chance to hit a grand slam, scoring four runs. But even without the grand slam, this batter can extend an inning with a high batting average and frequent walks. However, since home runs were a rarity before 1920, the concept of slotting a home run hitter fourth was slow to develop. Regardless, the need for a good run producer in that position was recognized from the early days in baseball history, as demonstrated by player manager Cap Anson generally penciling his name there. As power came to play a larger role in the game, the tendency to bat home run hitters fourth developed accordingly. In 1904, sportswriter Tim Murnane stated unequivocally that "The heavy hitter of the team is located at the fourth place." Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon placed the pitcher in the #8 spot during the beginning of the 2017 Cubs season.

On August 18, 1956, major league manager Bobby Bragan placed his best hitter in the leadoff position and the remainder of his lineup in descending batting average order. In his 1966 book, Percentage Baseball, Earnshaw Cook claimed that Bragan's lineup would result in 1 to 2 more wins per season. A computer simulation demonstrated the superiority of Bragan's lineup.