Play Home Run Hitter online

Press Play ball and the pitcher winds up and throws. Tap or click the ball as it reaches the plate to swing. A ball that clears the fence between the two yellow foul poles is a home run; everything else is an out: a swing and a miss, a pitch you let go by, a foul, a ball caught in the field, or one that drops short or comes back off the wall.

The feet left to the plate count down just under the strike zone as the pitch comes in, and turn gold in the moment to swing. After your swing they show how far off the plate you met the ball. After ten outs the game is over, and the result shows your score, your home runs, your longest drive, and your best streak.

Pick the difficulty on the Play ball card, or with the Difficulty switch in the game's top bar (in the game menu, ☰, on a phone). It sets how quick the pitcher is, how many kinds of pitch come, how far from the middle of the zone they are aimed, and how much room your timing has. Your choice is kept in this browser, and changing it starts a new game.

• Easy: fastballs at 66 mph to start, a full second from the hand to the plate, close to the middle. Only fastballs until 8 home runs, and the timing has 40 % more room (Perfect within 28 milliseconds).
• Medium: fastballs at 78 mph to start, then a new pitch every few home runs, with the timing windows below.
• Hard: 86 mph from the first pitch, with changeups from the start and all five pitches by 10 home runs, aimed wider, and the timing has 15 % less room.
• Each difficulty keeps its own best score.

Timing is everything. On Medium, a swing within 20 milliseconds of the moment the ball reaches the plate is Perfect: full power, straight up the middle. Within 45 milliseconds it is Good, still fair, pulled toward left field when early and pushed toward right when late. Up to 90 milliseconds off, the bat still finds the ball, but it mostly goes foul; past that, it is a swing and a miss.

Where you tap sets the height. Just under the middle of the ball sends up a fly ball that carries, the kind that leaves the park. On the middle or above makes a line drive or a ground ball, and far under it a pop-up. Tap the ball where you see it, or where it is about to cross the plate: the bat takes whichever meets the ball more squarely. A ring shows where you tapped.

• Space or Enter swings for you, aimed just under the middle, so only your timing counts. A Perfect swing with Space clears the fence; a tap can drive the ball higher and farther.
• Space, Enter, or a tap on the field starts a game, and starts the next one when it is over.
• P, or the Pause button, holds the game until you carry on.
• R, or New game, starts over from the first pitch.
• A tap while a ball is flying, or while the call is up, skips ahead to the next pitch.

On Medium the pitcher starts with 78 mph fastballs near the middle of the zone. Every few home runs the pitcher steps up a stage: quicker, with another pitch in the mix and a wider spread round the strike zone. Easy climbs from 66 to 82 mph and adds only the changeup and, last, the curveball; Hard climbs from 86 to 99 mph.

• Stage 1: fastballs at 78 mph.
• Stage 2, at 3 home runs: fastballs at 84 mph, and changeups, slower and dropping late.
• Stage 3, at 6 home runs: 88 mph, and curveballs, which drop the most.
• Stage 4, at 10 home runs: 92 mph, and sliders, which slide across the plate.
• Stage 5, at 15 home runs: 96 mph, and sinkers, which dive.

A home run scores its distance in feet: a 412-foot drive is worth 412. Home runs in a row add a streak bonus: 100 more for the second, 200 more for the third, and so on. Any out ends the streak.

Your best score, your most home runs in a game, and your longest home run are kept in this browser for each difficulty, and the best score at the difficulty you are playing is shown beside the game.

Watch the ball out of the pitcher's hand, not the strike zone: the swing is about the moment it arrives.

• Swing a touch late rather than early: the ball covers the last few feet faster than it looks.
• Aim just under the middle of the ball. Too far under and it is a pop-up, however well timed.
• Use the countdown under the zone: the gold moment is the time to swing.
• On off-speed pitches, wait. A changeup arrives late, and a curveball drops below where it looked to be heading.
• A streak is worth more than distance. Five in a row add 1,000 points of bonus.