Sentence examples for a force play from inspiring English sources

Izturis bounced into a force play.

Kolkhorst eventually scored on a force play.

Floyd, the clean-up hitter, followed by grounding into a force play for the second out.

Reggie Sanders grounded into a force play, and J. T. Snow singled.

But Hermanson got Samuel Falkson to hit into a force play.

In between, he threw home for a force play to keep the game alive.

Plesac induced Shawn Green to ground into a force play to end the inning.

Closer José Valverde walked pinch-hitter Daryle Ward with two out in the ninth before retiring Alfonso Soriano, the tying run at the plate, on a force-play grounder for the save.

A force-play out put Matsui there in his place, and then, oopsie, over to second on a further Varitek embarrassment, and yikes!—to third, on still another sailer.

Rule 7.01 calls the runner safe at a base "when he touches it before he is out" and Rule 7.08 (e) calls him out if "he fails to reach the next base before a fielder tags him or the base [on a force play]." In other words, he has to definitively beat the defense, which sounds an awful lot like "tie goes the fielder".

A few years back a Guardian editor, an Englishman new to baseball, asked me "why a fielder has to touch every base except second to get a runner out [on a force play]?" It was a great question, and the answer was, if shortstops or second basemen don't get away from the bag as quickly as possible, they risk getting completely and totally obliterated by a runner seeking to break up a double play.