Comments on: Brain Game: A Half-Inning

By: JT

JT — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:37:15 +0000

Sandy –

You’ve doen well defending your puzzle against possible “correct” solutions, but I think I got you.

1. Triple
2. Strikeout
3. Single
4. Walk
5. Groundout
6. Flyout

First batter triples, and scores on single by thrid batter. 3rd batter moves to second on walk by 4th batter. 5th batter groundsout, but on the play there is an error which allows the runner on second to score and the runner on first to move to second. The sixth batter then pops out.

Thus, there are two runs on two hits, with a runner stranded on second, and all other clues are met.

By: Toby

Toby — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:31:10 +0000

I forgot to add that the batter with the dropped third strike gets thrown out at first, otherwise the strikeout doesn’t count as an out.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:27:36 +0000

Cancel that, forgot about the runner stranded on 2nd.

By: Sandy Wood

Sandy Wood — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:23:22 +0000

Almost, Stephen, but that scenario ends the inning with the runner stranded on third, not on second.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:13:28 +0000

What’s wrong with this logic?

1. Single
2. Strike out
3. walk
4. pop-up to 1st
5. Triple (scoring two runs)
6. Ground-out

I’m all for run-scoring ground-outs, but don’t see one as being needed.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:00:12 +0000

This was a good puzzle. Almost as good as watching my Twins catch up to the Tigers:)

By: Sandy Wood

Sandy Wood — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:58:32 +0000

Toby — almost, except yours would end the inning with runners stranded at 1st and 2nd instead of just second.

That’s why I had to make one of the outs a “pop-out to first” to indicate that it was an out during which no runner advanced. As tricky as this one is to solve, believe me, it was twice as tricky to come up with!

By: Sandy Wood

Sandy Wood — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:55:31 +0000

Wilson, the 5th batter grounded out. So I presume that you mean why did the 2nd batter strike out and the 6th batter pop out… the reason there is that the clues indicate that the pitcher only threw two pitches to the 6th batter; not enough to strike him out.

If the 5th batter had popped out, the runner who was on first from the walk couldn’t have reached second without stealing a base, and we specified that there were no SBs.

Wow, these baseball logic puzzles really get the brain warmed up on a Monday.

By: Toby

Toby — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:37:21 +0000

I was looking for a trick. I had:
1 – Single
2 – groundout
3 – triple (scores a run)
4 – walk
5 – strikeout with a dropped third strike allowing the runner on third to score and the runner on first to advance to second (my way around the no stolen bases caveat)
6 – popout
I think it works…

By: Wilson

Wilson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:02:44 +0000

With the second batter and the fifth batter, does it really matter which one popped out to first and which one struck out? Neither out would advance a runner.