How many baseballs are used in an MLB game? We tracked a Guardians-Tigers game to find out

There are rules to this. That’s important to understand. Every half-inning begins with a new baseball. Every time a pitch touches the dirt, it’s typically tossed. If a batter hits it, likely gone, too.

Some pitchers are pickier than others. They might throw out a ball before even using it at all.

Watching the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians take batting practice before last Friday’s game at Progressive Field gave me an idea: Count every ball that is used in the game. It’s more difficult than you think. Pitchers might toss one in the middle of warmups. Guardians starter Aaron Civale tossed out three before throwing the game’s first pitch.

Civale and Tigers starter Tarik Skubal were so picky with baseballs that even Guardians catcher Austin Hedges noticed.

“Rawlings is making some bank tonight,” Hedges told Tigers catcher Tucker Barnhart during one at-bat.

Baseball estimates between eight and 10 dozen baseballs are used in every major-league game. So how do you go through 96-120 baseballs every single night?

Here’s how …

A ball boy drops off the first ball and rosin bag after the national anthem and before the Guardians take the field. It doesn’t even survive Civale’s warmup tosses and Hedges tosses it for a new ball (1). Civale completes his warmup throws and tosses out that one, too (2). We’re at three balls and no strikes before leadoff batter Robbie Grossman even steps into the box.

“Civ is (pickier) than most,” Hedges concedes.

Civale gets two quick outs on three pitches. This might be the one. Willi Castro grounds to second. Civale gets the ball back and … throws it into the dugout (3).

“They get dented,” Civale explains. “It just has a different feel. I don’t know how it reacts, but it feels different to me.”

Miguel Cabrera fouls one off (4). A ball boy retrieves it and gives it to a fan. Another ball boy runs out another set of balls to home plate umpire Shane Livensparger as Civale palms a new one. He throws one pitch with it and strikes out Miguel Cabrera looking. Civale is pumped. It’s the first time in his career he struck out Cabrera, one of the players he grew up admiring. Hedges throws it to Jose Ramirez at third who promptly flips it underhand high in the air and into the stands (5). New half-inning, new ball.

Myles Straw singles on the first pitch he sees to start the bottom of the first, so you know where this is going — into the camera bay (6). Amed Rosario fights off three pitches (7, 8, 9) before bouncing into a double play. Skubal checks it after the Tigers throw it around and, yep, no good (10). He shakes the ball in his hand to get Livensparger’s attention for another one.

Ramirez digs in and fouls it into the seats (11). Ramirez hits a rope to center that fools Derek Hill, who initially broke in. Ramirez scampers into third and Barnhart doesn’t even wait for Skubal to throw out the old one (12) before flipping him a new one. Owen Miller hits a sharp grounder to short to end the inning and the Tigers take the ball with them into the dugout (13).

Thirteen baseballs just to get through the first inning.

Civale throws three pitches and Javier Baez grounds out. Livensparger reaches into his bag and tosses out a new ball (14) before the Guardians finish throwing the old one around the infield.

Civale’s breaking ball badly fools Jeimer Candelario. It’s an 0-2 count. The ball is working, right? Wrong. Hedges flips it to the dugout (15).

“If it hits the dirt, I’m throwing it out,” Hedges says. “Every time.”

Candelario fouls off two pitches (16, 17) and the ball boy runs out three new ones. He needs them fast. There go two more foul balls (18, 19).

Spencer Torkelson fouls one in the dirt (20) before doubling down the left-field line. By the time the ball returns to the infield, Ramirez doesn’t even ask. He rolls it out of play (21).

More importantly, the Tigers have runners at second and third now with one out. Jonathan Schoop hits a line drive to Ramirez, who steps on third to double off Candelario. He takes the ball with him into the dugout (22).

Franmil Reyes fouls off two rather quickly (23, 24). When Reyes strikes out looking, Livensparger reaches into his bag, but Skubal checks the ball and elects to keep it. Mercado lines out for the second out and, hang on a minute, Skubal keeps it! It’s the first time in this game a batter made contact and the ball wasn’t immediately discarded. But when Yu Chang fouls it to the screen, a ball boy retrieves it and drops it into the dugout suites (25). Chang strikes out looking to end the inning (26).

Barnhart grounds out to start the third. Civale calls for a new ball (27). Derek Hill lines a single to left. Civale retrieves it and throws it out of play (28). The ball boy checks but doesn’t drop this one in the dugout suites. Instead, he returns it to the bag by his feet. So it’s not dead yet? How do we score this? Will Civale be able to tell if he gets it back? Have I wasted the last 45 minutes doing this?

While I try to figure this out, Grossman hits one foul (29) and the ball boy retrieves it and … again it goes back into the bag. Are they suddenly running low? We were discarding balls like expired eggs a minute ago. Now they’re hoarding them?

“That’s a garbage bag,” Hedges said. “The ball is trashed. It won’t come back in the game.”

What a relief. Onward.

Hill gets a good jump and steals second. Civale surprisingly elects to keep the ball, but Grossman fouls off the next pitch anyway (30) before flying out on the next pitch. Civale calls time, checks the ball and tosses it out (31). The ball boy scoops it up and stares at it. He keeps it in his hand for a moment, flips it to the other ball boy and they make the executive decision to put it in the “garbage bag” rather than flip it into the stands. Castro grounds out to end the inning (32).

Skubal tosses a few warmup pitches and discards that one, too (33).

Ernie Clement fouls one off (34) before singling. Civale would discard it immediately if he was on the mound, but Skubal wants to give it one more chance. He throws three more pitches before Hedges fouls one in the dirt (35). Hedges flies out on the next pitch and Skubal elects to keep it. The ball lives long enough to tag out Clement at second trying to steal. That’s two outs with one ball, which at this rate might be some sort of record (not counting double plays).

Straw grounds out to end the inning (36). All three outs with one ball. That’s a record.

Civale burns through seven balls in the top of the fourth: two on Cabrera (37, 38), two on Baez (39, 40) and three on Candelario (41, 42, 43).

Skubal does him one better and needs six balls to get through the bottom of the fourth: three to Rosario (44, 45, 46), one on Ramirez (47) and two to Owen Miller (48, 49).

When Civale bounces a pitch to Torkelson to start the fifth, even the rookie knows the drill at this point. Torkelson flips the ball out of play (50) before fouling off three more (51, 52, 53) before grounding out (54).

Schoop flies out (55) and Barnhart burns through four balls in his at-bat (56, 57, 58, 59), which might have been when Hedges cracked the Rawlings joke. Civale, enjoying his best outing after a brutal six weeks to start the season, applauds the defense by clapping with his glove as the ball boy comes bearing gifts for Livensparger: two more baseballs and a cold drink. This is hard work. Livensparger has thrown almost as many pitches as Civale.

Reyes lines a single to left field to open the fifth. Skubal keeps the ball, then checks it again and changes his mind (60). Oscar Mercado lines two foul balls off the screen (61, 62) and Livensparger is calling for the ball boy again.

Four foul balls from Chang (63, 64, 65, 66) precede Livensparger going all Civale and throwing a ball out just to throw one out (67). Skubal finally strikes out Chang before taking a line drive off his shin. Candelario throws out Chang to end the inning, but that ball isn’t coming back (68). Neither is Skubal, who leaves with a contusion on his left leg. Lost in all this ball counting was the fact this was a beautifully pitched scoreless game for the first five innings.

Civale throws two pitches to Hill to start the sixth and wants a new ball (69). He checks and then discards it (70).

“There’s a certain seam orientation that I prefer,” Civale said. “And 95 percent of the balls are the way that I like them. It just depends on how they’re stamped. You get the occasional one that I’ll just throw out because the seams are backward.”

The top photo is a standard Major League Baseball with the stamp in the typical location. The bottom photo is where the stamp sometimes goes, which makes the seams “backward” to a pitcher like Aaron Civale, who gets rid of the ball before using it. (Jason Lloyd / The Athletic)

It isn’t that the seams are backward, but the occasional placement of the “Official Major League Baseball” stamp means the seams would be pointed in the direction opposite that Civale is used to gripping the ball.

“I don’t think there’s any difference in feel,” Civale said. “But one coach I had always said, ‘Grip the ball the same way every time.’ I notice that the ball was with the arrows (of the seams) the majority of the time one way. I’m sure it doesn’t change anything. It just feels different.”

Hill nubs one foul (71) and Hedges rejects the next ball after one pitch (72). Hill strikes out but the ball, remarkably, survives. Grossman lines to Miller, who flips to Civale covering first base. Civale tosses the ball after recording the out (73) and looks to Livensparger, who’s going to need another drink soon. Two more balls from the ball boy after Castro fouls off the first pitch he sees (74) before striking out on three pitches (75).

Tigers reliever Jacob Barnes jogs in from the bullpen to relieve a sore Skubal to start the sixth inning. Skubal was terrific, allowing only four hits, and more impressively, needing only 25 baseballs to throw 66 pitches. Civale has burned through twice as many balls in the same amount of time.

Hedges bangs a double off the wall in left to start the sixth. Barnes seems content to keep the ball, but Livensparger insists. He holds up a new one and Barnes flips the old one away (76). After all, a ball that connected with a bat and a wall can’t possibly be useful.

Straw taps a slow roller for an infield single, but the Tigers want to review the call at first. That gives Barnes plenty of time to study the ball. The call stands and so does the ball. For now.

With runners on the corners and nobody out, Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter visits the mound. It’s unclear if they discuss when Barnes will throw out this ball, too.

The answer? One more pitch. Rosario lines a single to center. Hedges scores the first run of the game. Barnes stares at the ball and rubs it with both hands, but elects to keep it. He should just get rid of it.

Nevermind. Ramirez got rid of it for him — into the right-field seats (77). It’s 4-0 after Ramirez’s ninth home run. No one was sure Ramirez could even play after fouling a ball off his leg the day before. The leg must be feeling much better now as he rounds the bases.

Barnes allowed four runs with that ball. He should’ve yelled at Livensparger for giving it to him or he should’ve just kept the one Hedges banged off the wall for a double.

Miller (78, 79, 80) and Mercado (81, 82, 83) each burn through three more baseballs before the inning is over.

Civale needs three baseballs to get Cabrera out to start the seventh (84, 85, 86) and Baez fouls one (87) before singling off Ramirez’s glove at third base. Ramirez rolls the ball into the dugout in disgust (88).

Candelario goes through three baseballs (89, 90, 91) before bouncing the fourth back to the mound. Civale bobbles it for an error and tumbles to the ground. Guardians pitching coach Carl Willis walks to the mound to check on him. Civale stays in the game but the ball is long gone (92).

Civale throws one more pitch but something doesn’t feel right. He’s forced out of the game with a cramp in his left glute and Guardians reliever Enyel De Los Santos enters. The ball leaves with Civale, too (93). He needed 60 baseballs to throw 95 pitches, but he left after 6 1/3 scoreless innings and shaved more than two runs off his ERA. On Wednesday, Civale was placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 22, due to the left glute tightness.

Torkelson lines out to left for a sacrifice fly on the first pitch as Baez scores. De Los Santos has the same rule as Civale. If the ball touches the bat, it’s out (94). He gets Livensparger’s attention for a new ball.

Schoop fouls two (95, 96) before lining out to end the inning (97).

Tigers reliever Jason Foley enters and needs only two baseballs (98, 99) to get through the inning. Civale scoffs.

De Los Santos needs only four balls (100, 101, 102, 103) to sail through the top of the eighth. Straw doubles to lead off the Guardians’ eighth and Rosario doubles down the line to score Straw, but Foley keeps the ball. Ramirez is due up again so Fetter runs out to make sure Foley wants to keep it.

Ramirez grounds out. Better not take any chances though. The ball departs (104), so does Foley and in comes Tigers reliever Drew Carlton. He needs two balls (105, 106) to get out of the inning, but Miller dinged him for a sac fly with No. 105.

Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase gets ahead 0-2 to Castro to start the ninth and Hedges tosses away the ball (107). He throws one in the dirt and Hedges — you know the rules by now — pitches that one, too (108). Castro fouls off three more (109, 110, 111) before he strikes out looking.

Cabrera grounds out on the third ball used in his at-bat (112, 113, 114) and Baez fouls off No. 114 before striking out on baseball No. 115. Hedges flips the game-winning ball to Clase, who walks back to the rubber and stands on the mound, greeting the players coming off the field. He carries the ball in his glove into the dugout after Cleveland’s 6-1 win.

One hundred and fifteen baseballs were used in the game. Right within baseball’s average range. Civale was responsible for about half of them in 6 1/3 innings.

In the clubhouse afterward, Hedges guessed that they went through about 75 balls in the game. His eyes bulge when I tell him the actual number.

“When Civ throws, it’s going to be more than usual,” Hedges says. “Golly, Rawlings, I gotta invest in baseballs. Can you do crypto baseballs?”

(Top photo of Aaron Civale: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kmxpbm9laHxzfJFrZmltX2eDcLPUmqmdoZGjwG7AyKCcq6tdl660scGao6WrXarAprCO

Martina Birk

Update: 2024-08-24

SkyVlog