Olympic baseball rules explained

Olympic baseball is back and here are the key rules to know ahead of the tournament.

After a 13-year hiatus, baseball is back at the Summer Olympics. The return of baseball, along with softball, made sense since the sport is very popular in the host country of Japan.

The rules of Olympic baseball are very similar to traditional baseball rules, meaning that fans of the sport will be able to watch Olympic competition without any of Rob Manfred’s strange rule changes such as the three-batter minimum or the extra-inning rule that puts a ghost runner on second base to try and promote a speedy end to games.

Key rules to know for Olympic baseball

There are two key differences that have been implemented for the Olympics in order to promote pace-of-play. There will be a 12-second pitch clock, which is something that has been bandied about in Major League Baseball, to speed the game along as well as just 90 seconds between innings.

There will be a six-team field for the Olympics with the teams divided into two groups of three. Each team will play a game against the other members of its group before advancing to the second stage of the competition, which will involve a modified double-elimination tournament.

The bracket will initially set up with each team facing off with the squad that placed in the same spot in the other group, so Group A’s winner will face Group B’s winner and so on. The third-place teams will face off first, with the loser eliminated entirely while the winner faces the winner of the second-place team’s matchup.

The losers head to the consolation bracket, with the winner moving on to take on the loser of the matchup between the two first-place teams. This process will result in two teams being left in the winner’s bracket, with the winner of that matchup earning a place in the gold medal game.

The consolation bracket will have one final game as well, with the winner of that contest earning the last spot in the gold medal game. The two teams left from the consolation bracket will face off for a bronze medal.