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Definition of home plate
: a 5-sided rubber slab at one corner of a baseball diamond at which a batter stands when batting and which must be touched by a base runner in order to score
Examples of home plate in a Sentence
The runner was tagged out at home plate.
Recent Examples on the Web The next day, the Tigers took the unusual step of having a player — Galarraga — present the lineup card to the home plate umpire, who, as is standard practice, had been the previous game’s first-base umpire.
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George Will, National Review, "In Baseball, the Most Valuable Rules Are Unwritten," 30 Oct. 2019 Turner was called out for interference by home plate umpire Sam Holbrook.
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Eliott C. Mclaughlin, CNN, "World Series: Washington Nationals force Game 7 with another road win," 29 Oct. 2019 But the home plate umpire Sam Holbrook ruled that Turner had interfered with Gurriel, called him out and sent Gomes back to first base, even though Turner had done nothing but run a straight line.
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Benjamin Hoffman, New York Times, "Nationals Overcome Astros in Game 6 to Extend World Series," 29 Oct. 2019 But home plate umpire Cory Blaser, who otherwise had a good night, ruled that Sanchez tipped the ball.
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BostonGlobe.com, "Correa walk-off home run ties up, heats up a fun ALCS - The Boston Globe," 14 Oct. 2019 Seldom is there a game where the home plate umpire is consistently wrong on ball strike calls.
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Mike Schmidt, chicagotribune.com, "Computer strike zone good, but check your hearing," 8 Oct. 2019 The next handful of heckles was showered on home plate umpire Adrian Johnson, who didn’t call a borderline third strike.
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Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, "Kenley Jansen booed after another blown save in Dodgers’ loss: ‘I sucked’," 18 Sep. 2019 The homer carried well beyond the fence that stood 410 from home plate and provided one of the main highlights in a showcase for top prospects.
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Bobby Nightengale, Cincinnati.com, "Cincinnati Reds catching prospect Tyler Stephenson breaks out offensively in Arizona Fall League," 26 Oct. 2019 With the deficit narrowed to 3-1 and Pederson now 90 feet from home plate, Pollock lined a screamer that Strasburg snagged out of the air.
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Los Angeles Times, "Column: Nationals’ pitching strategy makes the Dodgers look clueless in Game 2 of NLDS," 4 Oct. 2019
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'home plate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for home plate
The first known use of home plate was in 1869
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