A box score is the whole game compressed into a grid of abbreviations. Once you know the shorthand you can tell your player's entire afternoon at a glance — and this page is the only table you need, whether you're reading a Major League box score or the one your coach posted after a 10U game.
A box score is a summary table of a baseball or softball game, listing every player who appeared and what they did, with one row per player and one column per statistic. Hitters get their own block, pitchers get another.
It answers "what happened" rather than "how it happened." For the play-by-play version you want a scorecard, which records every plate appearance as it occurs — see how to keep score at a baseball game for that side of it.
The standard order is AB, R, H, RBI, and you'll often see BB and K after them. So a line reading 4 1 2 3 means four at-bats, one run scored, two hits, three runs batted in. A very good day.
The trap for new parents: AB is not the same as trips to the plate. Walks, hit-by-pitch and sacrifices don't count as at-bats. A player who walked twice and singled once in four trips shows as 2 AB, 1 H — which looks like a quiet game and wasn't.
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AB | At-bats | Plate appearances minus walks, HBP and sacrifices |
| PA | Plate appearances | Every trip to the plate, no exceptions |
| R | Runs scored | The player themselves crossed the plate |
| H | Hits | Singles, doubles, triples and home runs combined |
| 1B | Single | Sometimes omitted and inferred from H minus 2B, 3B and HR |
| 2B | Double | |
| 3B | Triple | |
| HR | Home run | |
| RBI | Runs batted in | Runners who scored because of this batter |
| BB | Base on balls (walk) | Not an at-bat, so it never lowers batting average |
| IBB | Intentional walk | A subset of BB |
| HBP | Hit by pitch | Not an at-bat; does count for on-base percentage |
| K or SO | Strikeout | A backwards ꓘ means the batter was caught looking |
| SB / CS | Stolen base / caught stealing | |
| SAC or SH | Sacrifice bunt | Not an at-bat, and not in the OBP denominator |
| SF | Sacrifice fly | Not an at-bat, but it IS in the OBP denominator |
| TB | Total bases | 1 for a single, 2 a double, 3 a triple, 4 a home run |
| LOB | Left on base | Runners still on when the inning ended |
| AVG | Batting average | H ÷ AB — calculator |
| OBP | On-base percentage | How often they reach base — calculator |
| SLG | Slugging percentage | TB ÷ AB — calculator |
| OPS | On-base plus slugging | OBP + SLG — calculator |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IP | Innings pitched | 5.1 means 5⅓ innings, 5.2 means 5⅔ — the decimal counts outs |
| H | Hits allowed | |
| R | Runs allowed | All runs, however they scored |
| ER | Earned runs | Runs that would have scored without a fielding error |
| BB | Walks allowed | |
| K or SO | Strikeouts | |
| HBP | Batters hit by a pitch | |
| HR | Home runs allowed | |
| ERA | Earned run average | Earned runs per full game — calculator |
| WHIP | Walks + hits per inning | Baserunners allowed per inning — calculator |
| W / L / SV | Win / loss / save | Rarely tracked in youth ball |
| PC or P | Pitch count | The number that matters most for young arms |
| Abbreviation | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PO | Putouts | Recording the out directly — a catch, a tag, stepping on the base |
| A | Assists | Throwing or deflecting the ball to the fielder who made the out |
| E | Errors | A misplay a fielder should reasonably have made |
| TC | Total chances | PO + A + E |
| DP | Double plays | |
| FLD% | Fielding percentage | (PO + A) ÷ TC — calculator |
Fielders are also identified by number rather than name in play descriptions — 6 is the shortstop, 3 the first baseman, so a groundout reads 6-3. The full list is in baseball position numbers.
Every abbreviation above means exactly the same thing in softball. Parents searching for what AB, BB or TB mean "in softball stats" are looking at an identical table — the differences between the sports are in the game (seven innings rather than nine, pitching distance, and a tenth fielder in slow-pitch), not in the notation.
Most box scores sit under a small grid showing runs per inning and three totals: R, H, E — runs, hits and errors for each team. That's the game's headline. A team that loses 7-2 while out-hitting the opposition usually has a big number in the E column.
Say your player's line reads 3 2 2 1 1 1 under AB, R, H, RBI, BB, K, with one of the hits marked 2B.
That's an excellent game, and notice how much of it the batting average alone would have missed.
If you want the meaning behind each stat rather than just the abbreviation, the stats explained guide walks through every formula in plain English. If you'd rather record the game yourself than wait for someone else's box score, start with the free printable scorecard.
A summary table of the game listing every player who appeared and what they did — one row per player, one column per statistic, with hitters and pitchers in separate blocks. It tells you what happened, while a scorecard records how it happened, play by play.
Read a hitter's line left to right as AB, R, H, RBI: four numbers reading 4 1 2 3 means four at-bats, one run scored, two hits and three runs batted in. Pitchers read as IP, H, R, ER, BB, K.
K is a strikeout. A backwards ꓘ indicates a called third strike, where the batter did not swing.
R counts every run allowed. ER counts only earned runs — those that would have scored without a fielding error. ERA is calculated from earned runs only.
AB is at-bats, which excludes walks, hit-by-pitch and sacrifices. A player who walks twice in four trips to the plate shows only two at-bats, which is why on-base percentage often tells a fuller story than batting average.
No. AB, R, H, RBI, BB, K, IP, ER and the rest mean exactly the same in both sports. The differences are in the game itself, not the notation.
Runs, hits and errors for each team — the game's headline totals, shown above the inning-by-inning line score.