No-doubles defence, and the single you agree to give up

No-doubles defence, a baseball defence drawn in Playmaker: 9 of our players on the pitch. — Pitcher — 1 of 9

Baseball · Defence · 9 of your players

A run up in the last innings, and the only hit that really hurts you is one that lands behind an outfielder or skips into a corner. This alignment hands over everything else.

Open in Playmaker

Opens on a baseball pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.

The shape of it

Two changes, both of them about the edges of the field. First base and third base move onto the lines at about 110 ft, close enough to the chalk that a ball down the line is knocked down rather than waved at. Behind them, all three outfielders play at about 310 ft — twenty feet off a 330 ft fence — and spread wider than usual, so left and right are protecting the line and the gap at the same time.

The middle infielders stay at their standard 150 ft and the pitcher and catcher do not move. Nine players, no runners on the drawing, because this is an alignment you set before the hitter arrives rather than a reaction to somebody on base.

When a coach calls for it

Late, with a lead you can afford to shave. One run up in the ninth is the obvious case: a runner on first is survivable, a runner on second is not, so every ball that would have been a double becomes the thing you are actually defending.

The cost is deliberate and you should say it out loud to the team. Balls drop in front of the outfielders. The single up the middle goes through because the corners are on the lines. A drawn-in defence gives up hits it would otherwise catch, and the whole justification is that none of those hits puts a runner in scoring position on their own. Call for it two innings too early with a one-run lead and you will have talked yourself into conceding four singles instead of one double.

What to drill

Angles off the line. A corner infielder on the chalk fields differently: the play is to smother the ball, not to make a highlight. Mark the position, then draw the throw to first from it.
Who has the gap. With the outfield spread, two fielders can both believe the ball in the gap is theirs. Draw both routes and let them see the collision before it happens.
The relay in. From 310 ft the throw home is a two-man job. Put the cutoff man on the drawing and animate the throw so it goes to where he will be standing.

Open the alignment, add a runner or two of your own, and draw the relay you would actually run from the fence — that is the part this defence lives and dies on.