At bat

In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter’s turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, but a batter is charged with an at bat only if that plate appearance does not have one of the results enumerated below. While at bats are used to calculate certain statistics, including batting average and slugging percentage, players can qualify for the season-ending rankings in these categories only if they accumulate 502 plate appearances during the season.