Sacrifice fly: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

In baseball, a batted ball is considered a sacrifice fly (denoted by SF) if the following four criteria are met:

• There are fewer than two outs.
• The ball is hit to the outfield.
• The batter is out, either caught or put out at first base, or would have been out except for an error.
• A runner that is already on third base scores on the play.

A sacrifice fly is not counted as a turn at bat (AB) for the batter and he is also acredited with a run batted in (RBI), except if during the play the runner on third base scores, and another runner on the basepaths strays too far away from his base and he is forced out. In this case, the batter is accredited with a Ground into Double play (GIDB) instead a sacrifice fly, and it is counted as a turn at bat and not as a run batted in.