About First Inning Runs
A research site for one question: will anyone score in the 1st inning? Fans call it YRFI ("yes run first inning") or NRFI ("no run first inning").
What you'll find
- Today's Games: each matchup with both starters, how often they keep the 1st scoreless, how each lineup does against that hand, the plate umpire, wind at the park, and sportsbook lines.
- Explore: every played game since 2023, filtered by team, home or away, starter hand, indoors or outdoors, and umpire. It compares how often a run actually scored with what the market expected before first pitch.
- Teams and Pitchers: 1st-inning records by season, by opponent, and over recent games.
How to read the numbers
- Sample size is always shown. A pitcher who is scoreless in 3 of 3 starts is not the same as one who is 30 for 30. Anything under 10 starts or games gets an amber tag.
- Market chance takes each sportsbook's YRFI and NRFI prices, removes the book's built-in margin, and averages across books. It is the market's estimate, not ours.
- Wind is shown as blowing in, out or across, measured against each park's line from home plate to center field. Domes have no wind. Retractable roofs are marked until MLB reports whether the roof is open.
- Top of order ranks every team 1 (strongest) to 30 by the hitters who usually bat at the top of its lineup over its last 15 games. Each hitter's wOBA (an all-in-one hitting stat) is weighted by how often his spot bats in the 1st: spots 1 to 3 always do, the 4th hitter 63% of the time, the 5th 34%, the 6th 17%. In 2023-2025, teams in the top fifth scored in about 33% of their 1st innings, against 27-29% for everyone else. Day-to-day lineup changes, even a star sitting out, made no measurable difference, so the rank updates once each morning.
- Umpires. In 2023-2026 (7,965 games) umpires' 1st-inning scoring rates differed no more than luck would produce. We show them as context only.
Where the data comes from
- Schedules, starters, play-by-play and umpires: the MLB Stats API, used for non-commercial research.
- Sportsbook lines: The Odds API. We never scrape sportsbooks.
- Weather: the National Weather Service, and Open-Meteo for Toronto.
Lines refresh about every 20 minutes on game days. Stats on Today's Games only count games played before today.
Not betting advice
This is a stats site. We don't take bets, we don't sell picks, and nothing here is a guarantee. Odds change quickly, so always check your sportsbook. If gambling stops being fun, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.