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In baseball, a brushback pitch is a pitch thrown high and inside, usually a fastball, to force the batter away from the plate, often to intimidate. It differs from the beanball in that the intent is not to hit the batter, or intentionally throw at the batter's head. Play-by-play announcers will sometimes call a high brushback pitch as being "high and tight." It is also referred to as chin music.

Hitters will often crowd the plate in order to have a better swing at pitches on the outside half of the plate. The hitters hope that the pitcher will be scared to throw inside because they might hit the batter. The brushback helps a pitcher to "reclaim" the corners of the strike zone by forcing the batter to stand farther away.

While controversial, the brushback can be an effective part of pitching, although the home plate umpire can issue a warning to, and even eject, a pitcher the umpire feels is trying to hit a batter intentionally.

References

1. "Brushback @ Dictionary.com". Random House. 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
2. "Beanball @ Dictionary.com". Princeton University. 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-02.

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