A mercy rule, slaughter rule, knockout rule, or skunk rule ends a two-competitor sports contest earlier than the scheduled endpoint if one competitor has a very large and presumably insurmountable lead over the other. It is called the mercy rule because it spares further humiliation for the loser. It is common in youth sports in North America, where running up the score is considered unsporting. It is especially common in baseball and softball, in which there is no game clock and a dominant team could in theory continue an inning indefinitely.

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