Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The game is played on a diamond-shaped field with four bases: first, second, third, and home plate. The objective is to score runs by hitting a pitched ball and running around the bases to reach home plate. The team on offense tries to hit the ball and advance runners, while the defensive team attempts to prevent runs by pitching, fielding, and making outs. A standard game consists of nine innings, and the team with the most runs at the end wins. Baseball is widely popular in the USA, Japan, and Latin America, with Major League Baseball (MLB) being the most prominent professional league.