wild pitch

[wahyld pich]

noun

Baseball.

1. a pitched ball that the catcher misses and could not be expected to catch, allowing one or more base runners to advance one or more bases.

Word History and Origins

Origin of wild pitch¹

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Idioms and Phrases

A careless statement or action, as in Calling comic books great literature—that's a wild pitch. This term comes from baseball, where it signifies a pitched ball so far off target that the catcher misses it, enabling a base runner to advance. [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

In the third, however, he followed a leadoff single by Bryan Reynolds with a pair of wild pitches that got by Rushing.

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Catchable fly balls drop, wild pitches, poor effort from the bullpen are costly as Dodgers fall to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

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One inning after that, Yamamoto went bust, walking Judge, giving up a two-run homer by Ben Rice, then yielding two singles to set up a run-scoring wild pitch.

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Later in the inning, the Yankees scored again after Yamamoto gave up two singles and spiked a splitter for a run-scoring wild pitch.

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Birmingham had been leading much of the game after taking a 3-2 lead in the third inning on an RBI double by Isaac Monterrubio and a wild pitch.

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