go-ahead run

[goh-uh-hed ruhn]

noun

Baseball.

1. a run that puts the batting team in the lead.

   The runner on third scores easily, and that’s the go-ahead run for Baltimore.

2. the runner who occupies a base closer to home plate than any other runner and who represents the team’s next opportunity to score a tie-breaking run.

   The go-ahead run is on second base, and any decent hit from Jackson is gonna bring him home.

Word History and Origins

Origin of go-ahead run¹

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

Mookie Betts had the first RBI, Tommy Edman knocked in Will Smith with the go-ahead run in the sixth, a hustling Freddie Freeman scored on a wild pickoff attempt, and on and on..

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In the top of the 12th, the Tigers had the potential go-ahead run on third with one out, only for Seattle reliever Eduard Bazardo to wiggle out of the jam.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

After Willson Contreras and Lars Nootbaar greeted him with singles to put runners at the corners, Pozo squirted a two-out single over the infield to score pinch-runner Garrett Hampson for the go-ahead run.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It was a four-pitch walk that forced in a go-ahead run.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

After a Shohei Ohtani two-run homer, a Teoscar Hernández RBI double and a run-scoring wild pitch from Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, the Dodgers had the go-ahead run at third with no outs.

Read more on Los Angeles Times