How to Read a Line Score: Quarters, Periods and Innings

A line score is the small table on each game page that shows how many points each team scored in every part of the game. It tells the story of a game in a single row per team: a fast start, a comeback or a late collapse.

Football and basketball: four quarters

NFL, college football, NBA and WNBA games are divided into four quarters, shown as Q1 to Q4. If the score is tied at the end of regulation an OT column is added. The final score is the sum of every column.

Hockey: three periods

NHL games have three periods, shown as P1 to P3. Overtime appears as OT, and a shootout as SO. In the regular season the shootout winner is credited with one extra goal in the final score.

Baseball: nine innings

MLB line scores list runs by inning, from 1 to 9, plus any extra innings. Next to the runs you will often see hits and errors totals; read more in our guide to runs, hits and errors.

Reading the table

• The away team is listed first and the home team second.
• Read across a row to see when a team did its scoring.
• Compare a column vertically to see which team won that quarter, period or inning.