Passed Ball
PBA pitch the catcher should have handled but did not, allowing a runner to advance, charged to the catcher rather than the pitcher.
A passed ball is charged when a catchable pitch gets past the catcher and a runner advances as a result. The judgment is whether ordinary effort should have handled it. If yes, it is a passed ball on the catcher; if the pitch was wild enough that no reasonable catcher could have stopped it, it is a wild pitch charged to the pitcher.
That distinction is the entire substance of the call, and it is a scorer's judgment rather than a rule. A ball in the dirt two feet outside is a wild pitch. A routine fastball that clanks off the mitt is a passed ball.
Neither is an error, which surprises people. Passed balls and wild pitches live in their own categories and do not appear in the catcher's or pitcher's fielding error column.
For earned run purposes the two diverge in an important way: runs that score because of a wild pitch are earned, since the pitcher caused them, while runs that score because of a passed ball are unearned.
Bleacher Notes distinguishes passed ball from wild pitch in the narration and charges the advance to the right player, which is what keeps the pitcher's ERA honest.
Is a passed ball an earned run?
No. A run that scores because of a passed ball is unearned, because the advance is charged to the catcher rather than the pitcher. A run scoring on a wild pitch, by contrast, is earned.
What is the difference between a passed ball and a wild pitch?
Whether the catcher should have handled it. A pitch a catcher could reasonably have caught is a passed ball charged to the catcher; a pitch too wild or too low to handle is a wild pitch charged to the pitcher.
Is a passed ball an error?
No. Passed balls are tracked separately and do not appear in the catcher's error total, even though the effect on the game can be identical to one.
Let the scorebook keep itself.
Bleacher Notes scores every play from a single spoken sentence, applying these rules for you. In beta now, free for parents.