Hate Watch / Rival alerts / MLB

MLB rival alerts

Baseball plays 162 games a season, and the failures come one pitch at a time: a strikeout, a dropped ball, a bases-loaded rally that goes nowhere. Hate Watch sends you each one as it happens, for the MLB teams and players you track.

What you get alerts for

MLB has the longest list of alerts, because every position can fail in its own way.

• Hitters: strikeouts, and in one game the third is a hat trick, the fourth a golden sombrero and the fifth or more a platinum sombrero. Also hitting into a double or triple play, getting thrown out on the bases, getting caught stealing or picked off, and going hitless.
• Fielders: an error, and a catcher letting a run score on a passed ball.
• Pitchers: giving up a home run, handing over a run, getting chased early, blowing a save, missing a quality start, and taking the loss.
• Teams: getting no-hit, going down in order for an inning, losing a replay challenge, putting a position player on the mound, stranding a runner in scoring position, and the opponent loading the bases.

The team alert with the best name is the NOBLETIGER: bases loaded with nobody out, and the team fails to score. It is named for exactly what it describes, and you hear about it the moment the inning ends.

Which ones buzz your phone

Push notifications by default include strikeouts, multi-strikeout games, double plays, errors, passed balls, home runs allowed, blown saves, losses, the NOBLETIGER and being no-hit. Hitless games, going down in order, lost challenges and missed quality starts go to the feed, and ordinary outs and walks are off. You can change all of this in Settings, for the whole league or for one player, so you can keep every strikeout for a single slugger and nothing else.

When the game ends

When a team you track loses, you get the loss alert, with lines for how: a walk-off, a lead of three runs or more that got blown, a shutout, a loss as the favorite, a loss to a team with a much worse record. Baseball is played in series, so a team that loses every game of a series of three or more is marked as swept.

Picking a target

Yankees and Red Sox, Dodgers and Giants, Cubs and Cardinals: the rivalries are old, and a long season gives you plenty of chances to be right about them. Closers and a rival's best hitter make good player targets, because a blown save and a star's strikeout are rare enough to be worth a buzz. Search for a team or a player and tap Track.

For how the three alert settings work and what the loss alert adds, see how rival alerts work.

Free. No account. Push alerts need the iPhone or Android app.

Other leagues: NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, College football, Premier League, F1, UFC