automatic runner

[aw-tuh-mat-ik ruhn-er]

noun

Baseball, Softball.

1. Also called ghost runner. a runner who is automatically placed on second base at the beginning of each half of an extra inning, before any pitch is thrown.

Word History and Origins

Origin of automatic runner¹

First recorded in 1980–85; added to Major League Baseball rules of play in 2020

Example Sentences

An inning later, after Tanner Scott broke out of his recent struggles by holding the Mets scoreless in the top of the 10th, Freeman walked it off on a fly ball that Nimmo let fall at the warning track in left, getting all turned around as the ball came barreling toward the earth to let automatic runner Tommy Edman score with ease.

From Los Angeles Times

Then, after the Dodgers stranded their automatic runner at third in the top of the 10th, recently called-up right-hander Noah Davis threw just one pitch in the bottom half of the inning: a hanging screwball Happ slapped to right for his walk-off single.

From Los Angeles Times

Ohtani turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead with a 338-foot chip shot over the short wall in right field in the fifth inning, but his towering drive to right with the automatic runner aboard in the 10th fell just short of the warning track, and the Dodgers lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 9-8 in front of a crowd of 48,488 in Chavez Ravine.

From Los Angeles Times

The Dodgers went behind 5-4 in the top of the 10th, when Teoscar Hernández misplayed a ball in left field that allowed Pittsburgh’s automatic runner to score.

From Los Angeles Times

But the Dodgers rallied again in the bottom of the 10th, Andy Pages hitting a one-out double to left field off reliever Greg Weissert to score automatic runner Freeman to trim Boston’s lead to 6-5.

From Los Angeles Times