If a bat rattles after a pitch and the umpire cannot establish whether it rattled previously, what is the outcome for the hit?

• A. The home run will count and the bat will be removed from the game.
• B. The home run will be negated and the previous batter out.
• C. The previous batter will bat again.
• D. No penalty to the ball.

Answer: (B)

When a bat rattles after the pitch, it can indicate a possibility of an illegal bat, and the ruling hinges on whether the rattling occurred before contact. If the umpire cannot determine that, the safest and fairest path is to treat the hit as potentially tainted by illegal equipment. Therefore, the home run does not count and the previous batter is recorded as out. This prevents awarding a run on a play that could have been affected by an improper bat, while still concluding the current at-bat with an out to maintain the correct game state.