Youth Baseball Digest - What is the "ERA" in Baseball? How Do You Calculate Baseball Pitching "ERA"?

By Nick Dixon


In baseball, the Earned Run Average or ERA of a pitcher is a number representing the average number of earned runs allowed by the pitcher in normal amount of innings in a regulation game. Earned Run Average is a statistic by which a performances of a pitcher is judged. It is a quick way to evaluate a ability of a pitcher and compare his performance to other pitchers on the team and on opposing teams. The higher the ERA, the more runs the pitcher has allowed. Pitchers with good ERAs are considered better performers than pitcher with high ERAs. The Earned Run Average is calculated with a simple mathematical formula.

This article clearly explains how to calculate a Pitching ERA.

Earned Run Average or ERA is number representing the average number of earned runs allowed by a pitcher in a nine innings. The ERA is calculated by taking the number of earned runs allowed by the total number of innings pitched and then you multiply that number by 9. You do count runs score by batters that get on base because of an error are considered unearned runs. Unearned runs do not count toward a pitchers Earned Run Average.

The simple formula for calculating ERA is: (earned runs / innings pitched) x 9 (6 or 7)depending on number of innings played in your league.
Here are points that you need to remember when calculating the ERA of your pitchers:
1. You can convert everything to a 6 or 7 inning format by using 7 in place of 9. This should be done if your league plays 6 or 7 innings. See examples shown below:
Example: 9 Inning Format A pitcher has given up 10 runs and has pitched 10 innings, that pitcher has an ERA of 10 x 9 = 9.00.
Example: 7 Inning Format A pitcher has given up 10 runs and has pitched 10 innings, that pitcher has an ERA of 10 x 7 = 7.00.
Example: 6 Inning Format A pitcher has given up 10 runs and has pitched 10 innings, that pitcher has an ERA of 10 x 6 = 6.00.
2. An earned run is any run that is scored due to the pitching of the pitcher.
3. Each out counts as 1/3 of another inning, and any men base runners on base when the pitcher is taken out of the game are counted against that pitcher.
4. ERA is generally measured to two decimal points.
5. The two base statistics needed to calculate ERA are the earned runs allowed by the pitcher and the total innings he has pitched.
I hope that you found this article informative. I thank you for taking the time to read it. luck in the coming season. Have a great day! Nick

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Nick Dixon is the President and founder of Nedco Sports, a sports training company established in 1999. Dixon is also an active and full time high school baseball coach with over 25 years experience. Coach Dixon is better known as the inventor of the BatAction Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Target Trainer, the SKLZ Derek Jeter ZipnHit Pro, and the SKLZ Strikeback Trainer. Dixon is also a contributing writer for BaseballCoachingDigest, the Youth Baseball Digest, the Baseball Parent Guide, the Baseball 2Day Coaches Journal, and Blog4Coaches.

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