Scorekeeping 101 Passed Ball vs. Wild Pitch PB: A pitched ball in a location that the catcher can catch cleanly in the air with ordinary effort but is missed/dropped resulting in the baserunner(s) advancing to the next base(s). WP: A pitched ball that is out of ordinary reach of the catcher or hits the dirt before reaching the catcher resulting in the baserunner(s) advancing to the next base(s). Correct scoring of these is vital for the proper scoring of earned and un-earned runs. A PB is treated as an error (though not put on the scoreboard as an error) when figuring out earned/un-earned runs. **Don’t shoot the messenger. Just trying to explain the difference between the two. Note, even if the pitcher is purposely trying to throw a breaking pitch in the dirt for a put away pitch (swing and miss pitch) and the ball hits directly in front of the catcher, it doesn’t matter if we FEEL it “could” be caught cleanly on a short hop or we feel it “should have been caught.” If the ball makes contact with the dirt before reaching the catcher and a runner is able to advance because of this, it’s a WP. Also, if the runner was already stealing on the pitch, it is a SB (stolen base). If the runner stealing is able to advance a second base on the same pitch because of the PB or WP, the runner would be awarded a SB for the first base with the pitcher or catcher being tagged with a WP or PB for the second base reached. Hope that all makes sense.