Force play

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In baseball, a force play or force out occurs when a runner is required to advance to a base which a player on the opposing team has already reached while in possession of the ball.

There are two situations in which a force play occurs: One, a batter becomes a runner and gets put out because an opponent with possession of the ball reaches first base before the batter can get there. Two, a runner is forced to vacate their starting base (usually because another runner on their team is attempting to advance to that base), meaning that the runner must attempt to advance to the next base, but is forced out because an opponent with possession of the ball reached that base before they did.

Baserunners are forced to attempt to advance to the next base whenever a teammate is forced to advance to their own base. Because of this, a runner at first base is always forced to attempt to advance to second base when the batter becomes a runner, and runners at second or third base are forced only when all bases preceding their time-of-pitch base are occupied by other base-runners and the batter becomes a runner. However, runners are no longer forced to advance to the next base if any runner behind them on the base-paths is put out.