How Ninth Inning Drill works
Ninth Inning Drill puts you in the manager's chair at the most important moments of a baseball game. You see the score, the outs, who is on base, who is due up and who is pitching. You make the call. The game plays it out, then shows you how much that call changed your chances of winning, and what the best option was.
Reading the board
- Scoreboard: the inning, the score and the outs. You always manage the team marked YOU.
- Field: every player is a dot with a jersey number and last name. The color shows the rating, from red (weaker) to green (stronger). Runners keep their numbers as they move around the bases.
- Matchup line: hitter against pitcher, who has the left/right platoon edge, the pitcher's pitch count (tired pitchers get hit), the ballpark's home-run effect, and how the defense is set up.
The calls
When you are batting: swing away, pinch-hit, pinch-run, sacrifice bunt, steal, hit and run, and squeeze. When you are in the field: pitch to the batter, intentional walk, bring in a closer, a lefty or a setup man, make a defensive substitution, or set the defense: infield in, double-play depth, outfield in, or a no-doubles outfield. Each choice has real trade-offs. A bunt gives up an out. A steal can end the inning. A tired starter may still be your best arm, or may be about to give up the lead.
Win chance and the "best call"
For every decision the game simulates the rest of the situation more than a thousand times for each option and reports the percentage of times you win. The option with the highest percentage is marked with a star. You are also compared with a "conventional manager's book," a rule-of-thumb manager who bunts when trailing late and brings in the closer first. Differences of about one percent are within simulation noise, so a call within a point of the best counts as a best call.
Pitch by pitch
Turn on pitch-by-pitch at-bats and each plate appearance plays out one pitch at a time. You choose an approach for every pitch: take, swing normally, protect the plate, or sit on a fastball when batting; attack the zone, nibble the corners or waste a pitch when pitching. The pitch model is calibrated on the 47 games and 14,480 pitches of the 2025 postseason.
Game modes
- Daily: five late-inning spots, the same for everyone each day, with a weekly theme.
- Survivor: an endless run of spots that ends at your first loss.
- Postseason: pick a club and win a Division Series, a Championship Series and a World Series.
- Daily Real and Real Spots: famous late-inning decisions from baseball history. You make the call, then see what the real manager did and what happened.
- Challenge: three spots with the same dice for anyone who uses your code, so you can compare with a friend.
- Full Game: manage the 7th inning through extras. Your bench, bullpen, pinch-runner and pitch counts carry over and run out, and extra innings start with a runner on second. Your progress is saved automatically so you can come back to it.
Scoring, styles and badges
Your skipper score (0 to 100) reflects how much win chance you gave up across your calls. At the end you are told which kind of manager you were, such as a conservative one who rarely changes pitchers, a matchup manager who pulls every lever, or an aggressive small-ball manager, based on the mix of calls you made. Badges and lifetime stats are saved in your browser.
The leaderboard
If you choose, you can post your daily score to the leaderboard with a nickname. Points are 100 per win, plus 10 per best call, minus the win chance you gave up. Scores are self-reported, so treat the board as friendly competition.
Where the numbers come from
The pitch and at-bat model is calibrated on play-by-play data from the 2025 postseason provided by Retrosheet: strikeout, walk, single, double and home-run rates, and how pitch outcomes depend on the count. Eight clubs use their 2025 postseason rosters with ratings computed from those games. Five clubs use 2026 Opening Day lineups with ratings that are my own estimates. Real historical situations are summarized from public accounts, and the ratings of historical players are estimates. This is a game, not a projection system, and it will not match every real-world result.
Questions
Is it free? Yes. The site is supported by ads. Do I need an account? No. Where is my progress saved? In your browser on your device. Something looks wrong: please tell us, especially if a roster or rating is off.