What is an un-earned run?

Answer 1

The only way a runner can reach on a passed ball is if he strikes out, and the 3rd strike gets away from the catcher. Since the batter struck out, he should not have reached based, although no errors are charged the run if he later scores is an unearned run

See MLB Rule 10.18 Earned Runs. No earned run if batter reaches on passed ball.

A wild pitch is the pitcher's fault and contributes to the earned run.

Answer 2

There is only 1 possible way for a home run to be an UN-earned run.

The batter would hit a fly ball to the outfield and while the outfielder attempts to catch it (and that means routinely catch it, not an extremely difficult attempt to catch it) the ball hits either their glove, or their head and bounces over the wall. If you'll remember, it happened when Jose Canseco misjudged a fly ball and it bounced directly off the top of his head and went over the wall. Since he was charged with an error, the home run was charged as an unearned run.

Improvement:

There is more then 1 way for a home run to be unearned.

- Mentioned above is one way

- If the batter popped up in foul territory earlier in the AB and a routine catch is allowed to drop foul scored an error, if he later scores (i.e home run) that run is considered unearned

- If there has been errors in the inning allowing it to continue to the batter that hit the HR that is an unearned run

- Any situation where an error occured (fielding or throwing) on an "inside the park home run" would be considered an unearned home run (this techincally would not be scored as a HR)

- A play that violates the rules of Baseball, i.e throwing your cap or glove and hitting the ball, would result in the player getting 3 bases and the ball is still live so if he advanced home, that would be an unearned run

Most of these are situations you will not see. The most common would be a foul ball that was dropped resulting in an error and the batter later hitting a HR in the AB, the 2nd most common (in MLB) would be a fielding error resulting in an "inside the park HR", which noted above, would not be scored a HR, so i guess techincally doesnt apply to your question

The only way that a HR can both be truly a HR and an unearned run is on the foul ball scenerio, with a HR hit later in the AB (over the fence, or inside-the-park with no errors) --- all the other scenerios, would be scored accordingly to what would have happened if the error on the ball was not committed (i.e a ball that goes over the fence after misplayed by an outfielder is not a HR, but rather a 4 base error, in the scorebook)

Answer 3

A run is an unearned run when an error by the defensive team allowed the run to score.

EX: The bases are loaded, and the SS allowed the ball to go through his legs. All runs that would score would be unearned.

Answer 4

An unearned run is a run earned through an error by the opposing team. This could be an error or a passed ball.

Answer 5

Earned!