Tough Call

Guide

Tough Call Live

Score a real game as you watch it. Your screen supplies the play; the official scorer supplies the answer.

What you need

  • A free account. Live saves every call so it can be graded when the scorer rules and checked again after the game. Sign in with your email; there’s no password.
  • A game you can watch. On TV, a stream, a recording, or from the stands. Tough Call doesn’t show video in Live. It knows which batter is up and what the official scorer ruled; you supply the picture.
  • A level. MLB, Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, or Single-A.

Pick a game

When a game is on, the home screen shows a Live card with a Score it live button. Or open Live from the home screen any time.

  • Day. Today, Yesterday, the day before, or Pick a date for any day back to March 2015.
  • Level. MLB by default. Tap a minor-league level to see those games.

Tap the game. If no games show, there are none at that level that day.

Find your spot

You see the game’s at-bats as a list: batter, pitcher, inning, and outs. Tap the batter who is on your screen.

  • Watching live? The last row is the at-bat in progress. Now jumps straight there.
  • Watching a recording or joining late? Use Jump to for the inning, or Start for the first batter.

Live never shows the count, the result, or anything past the batter you’re on, so it can’t get ahead of your picture.

Score the at-bat

The matchup card shows who’s batting and who’s pitching. Below it are four pitch buttons, in the order a scoring app like GameChanger uses:

  • Ball (B)
  • Called strike (K)
  • Swing & miss (K)
  • Foul ball (F). A foul with two strikes doesn’t change the count.

The count shown is your own, built from your taps. Tap Undo to take back the last pitch. Strike three or ball four opens the strikeout or walk call for you.

When the at-bat ends some other way, pick from Ends the at-bat: Ball in play, Strikeout, Walk, or Hit by pitch. Ball in play walks you through the batted ball, the result, and the fielders, the same picker as Practice.

If something happens on the bases during the at-bat, like a stolen base, a wild pitch, a passed ball, a pickoff, or a balk, tap Something happened on the bases and score it. Those calls are graded as soon as MLB lists them, and you stay on the same batter.

Waiting for the scorer

Once you submit a batter’s call, you’ll see “Your call is in. The verdict shows as soon as the ruling lands.” If a play is being reviewed, you’ll see Play under review. Between innings, the next batter shows up when he steps in.

The verdict

Each verdict shows MLB’s description of the play first, then the ruling. Tap More details for the field-by-field grade.

  • Correct. Every graded field matches.
  • Partial. Right result, but the batted ball, the fielders, or the error is off. Half credit.
  • Missed. Wrong result.
  • Judgment call. You differed from the scorer only on a judgment question, like hit or error. Doesn’t count against you.

If you tapped the pitches, each batter’s verdict also shows how your pitches lined up with the official record.

Wrong batter, missed batter

  • Not the batter on your screen? Tap Wrong batter? and move to the one who is. Calls you already made are kept.
  • The game got ahead of you? If the game has moved on, Live asks whether you missed one, so you can catch up without losing your place.

After the game

Official scorers sometimes change a ruling after the game. Your Live calls are checked again overnight. Until then a call is marked Provisional. If a ruling changes, your stats update, and the call shows “Scoring changed after the game” with the old verdict. Your Live calls appear on Your stats alongside Practice and Drills.

Recorded games and the offseason

Pick a date to score any game back to March 2015, as long as you can watch it: a DVR recording, a replay on TV, or a streaming service’s archive. A finished game starts at the first batter. It’s the best way to practice Live in the offseason.

Season status · updated October 29, 2026

The MLB season is over. There are no MLB or minor-league games until spring training, usually in late February.

Practice and drills work all winter. Live works on any recorded game back to March 2015, as long as you can watch it.

MLB’s labor agreement expires December 1, 2026. If a lockout follows, MLB may change what video it makes available. Practice clips come from MLB, so some could stop loading for a while. This note will say so if that happens.

Codes on the screen

RHB, LHB
Right-handed batter, left-handed batter. A switch hitter shows the side he’s batting from.
RHP, LHP
Right-handed pitcher, left-handed pitcher.
Top 5, Bot 5
Top or bottom of the fifth inning. The visitors bat in the top.
B, K, K, F
Ball, called strike, swinging strike, foul ball. A called strike three is a backwards K in the book.

More notation is in the notation table.

Score a game.

Free account, any game you can watch.

Open Live