Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the world with the Major Baseball League (MLB) being the biggest baseball tournament out there. You can now experience participating in the MLB as the manager of a team from the comfort of your own PC or Mac now when you play MLB 9 Innings 23 with BlueStacks. Don’t know how to play baseball? No need to worry as we’ll go over a brief discussion on the rules of baseball as well as the player roles to help you learn the sport and start managing your MLB team right away!

Table of Contents

1. Basics of Baseball
2. Player Positions
3. Currencies
4. Playing Baseball in MLB
5. Playing Offense
6. Playing Defense

Basics of Baseball

In baseball, there are two teams with each team having nine players (each player has a role but we’ll talk about those later). There are nine innings (rounds) and each inning consists of a top inning and a bottom inning. For each half-inning, one team plays offense by taking control of the baseball bat while the other team plays defense by pitching the baseball. To win baseball, a team must obtain the greatest number of points after nine innings. To know how teams gain points, let’s take a look at the baseball field.

Photo attribution: This W3C-unspecified vector image was created with Inkscape., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1493166

Baseball is played on a baseball field as shown in the image above. When the offensive team successfully bats the baseball pitched by the defensive team, the batting player must run from 1st base to all the way back to home base (where they batted in the first place) in a counterclockwise direction to obtain one point. A running player cannot take shortcuts; they must touch the base first before running to the next. So for example, the runner must touch 1st base, run to 2nd base, and then do the same for the remaining bases.

The defensive team is dispersed all over the field (three players on the outfield; four on the infield) and they must prevent the offensive team from gaining a point; otherwise known as “outing” them. If the offensive team receives three outs, the half-inning automatically ends. How does the defensive team “out” the offensive team? There are several ways they can do this:

• If the baseball lands on the ground, the defensive team must get the baseball and quickly pass it to their teammate guarding the base that the offensive team is approaching. This must be done before the offensive touches the base.
• If a defensive player has the baseball in hand, they must touch (tag) the offensive’s running player.
• The baseball must be caught by the defensive team before it hits the ground.
• The offensive team fails to successfully bat the baseball three consecutive times.

Player Positions

In baseball, player positions are found in the defensive team. For the offensive team, all players play as batters at some point. Baseball video games, including MLB 9 Innings 23, typically abbreviate the roles so take note of the abbreviations when viewing your players.

Now let’s discuss what each role does.

Outfielders – these players are responsible for catching baseballs before they hit the ground or running to get them and pass them to the infielders. Outfielders are expected to be fast players.

• Left Fielder – stationed on the left field.
• Center Fielder – stationed on the center field.
• Right Fielder – stationed on the right field.

Infielders – these players are responsible for guarding the bases and ensuring the offensive team does not make it back to home base.

• First Baseman – guards the first base.
• Second Baseman – guards the second base but is stationed between the 1st and 2nd base (usually closer to the second base)
• Shortstop – guards the second base but is stationed between the 2nd and 3rd base (usually closer to the third base)
• Third Baseman – guards the third base.

Battery – these players consist of the pitcher and the catcher.

• Pitcher – is stationed on the pitcher’s mound and is responsible for throwing or pitching the ball to the catcher.
• Catcher – is stationed behind home plate and is beside the batter. They must catch the ball when the batter misses it.

Currencies

In MLB 9 Innings 23, there are two currencies that you can earn by winning in games, participating in events, and much more. These are Points and Stars.

Points is the basic currency of the game and this can be used to purchase upgrades for your players. Stars on the other hand is the premium currency of the game and can be used to recruit new players via player packs. The more expensive the pack is, the better the chances of getting a strong player. Both of these currencies can be attained by playing the game however you can buy them in bulk with real money as a microtransaction.

Playing Baseball in MLB

Whether it would be aiming for the championship in League Mode, challenging other players in battle modes, or just having a practice match, the mechanics of Baseball are more or less the same. Before each match, you can choose to play offense or defense only or play both. We’ll discuss how to play both sides.

Play MLB 9 Innings 23 on PC

Play MLB 9 Innings 23 on PC

Playing Offense

When batting, you must simply click on the “Swing” button at the right time to bat the ball. The strength and direction of the ball after batting it depends on the timing of the click and which part of the button you clicked respectively. 

Alternatively, you can choose to “bunt” the ball either to the left or right. Bunting in baseball refers to the act of tapping the ball with the bat without necessarily swinging it. The purpose of this is to make it harder for the defensive to field (get and pass) the ball while giving time for other offensive players stuck in bases to advance.

Playing Defense

You control the pitcher during defense. When pitching you have several ways of pitching the baseball to the batter such as Sinker, Cutter, Slider, Four-Seam, and the like. There are plenty of pitching variations out there that make the ball travel in a particular direction and each one has strategic value. Click on one of the pitching types to select it and then drag and click the baseball to orient it to the desired direction of the pitch. The available pitching types may be different depending on the current pitcher.

Additionally, you may also click on “Catcher’s Lead” to allow the catcher to give signals to the pitcher on how to throw the ball. In a way, this is like letting the game automatically make the pitch for you. You may also click on “Intentional BB” to initiate an “intentional base on balls” where the batter is intentionally allowed to walk to first base. The purpose of this is to prevent high-skilled batters from batting and opening a potential for double play.

You can also click on “Fielding Position” to edit the positions of your outfielders, infielders, or both. This can be useful to play around with when you are aware of the batting skills of the current batter and how far you think the ball may travel.