Except if the out is made at first everything after might happen differently. Team and pitcher might be confident with two outs and get the next out easy.
How many earned runs in this inning?
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Except if the out is made at first everything after might happen differently. Team and pitcher might be confident with two outs and get the next out easy.
BINGO! That's why they call it the fallacy of the predetermined outcome. That's the assumption the inning plays out the same exact way.
- Jun 8, 2016
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I don't disagree, but (again) replaying the inning without the error is what is commonly described when talking about determining whether a run is earned or not.
That's a fair point, but what if a pitching change occurred after the error, and they only changed the pitcher because a runner got on or scored? I know that's more common in baseball, but it could happen, and you couldn't reconstruct the inning in the same way.
- Jun 8, 2016
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I don't think scorers take a pitching change into account in determining whether a run is earned or not just like they wouldn't account for the differences in wind speed and direction because a runner was on third vs. second..
Scoring is assumed to be a reversible thermodynamic process... 
I don't think scorers take a pitching change into account in determining whether a run is earned or not just like they wouldn't account for the differences in wind speed and direction because a runner was on third vs. second..
So if the field is an isolated system then scoring must assume that no entropy is produced, meaning among other things that softball play is frictionless and games occur through quasi-equilibrium processes. I’ll watch tomorrow and see where these assumptions break down….
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- Jun 8, 2016
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There are not many things I am sure of in life but one of them is that at softball tournaments, the inequality is always taken in the 2nd Law of Thermo..
A pitching change would not change anything when determining earned runs. You still reconstruct the inning with the pitching change.
It's a simple (maybe even simplistic) process, and it is of course not perfect since every event can affect the next one.
- Nov 18, 2013
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A relief pitcher resets everything in regards to earned/unearned runs. Any batters they allowed to reach safely that come around to score are earned. The runs would only be unearned if another error takes place making the inning last longer while they’re in the circle. If the third out of the inning would have taken place if not for an error occurring before they entered the game, it’s still an earned run for the relief pitcher.
I think game changer has it right. No one forced the girl from third to run home even though an error was committed. That is an entirely separate play. Would be the same as if the girl was caught trying to steal home on the next play. The girl could potentially have chosen to run home even if the play was completed successfully at first.
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