Taco Bell pitched a softball during the World Series. On Tuesday, it will pay.

The official quick-service restaurant of Major League Baseball is offering everybody in America a free taco between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. in their local time zones. The offer is good in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

What's behind the largesse? A bet the Yum! Brands (nyse: YUM - news - people ) subsidiary was fairly likely to lose. Rob Savage, the company's chief operating officer, detailed the "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion last week, during the first game of the Series: If a player from either team could steal a base in any of the series’ games, everyone in the entire country would be eligible for a free taco.

Thing is, in an average baseball game in 2007, there were about 1.2 stolen bases. In the 2006 World Series, two bases were stolen. So, over the course of the best-of-seven contest this year, it was pretty likely that somebody would steal a base.

Red Sox centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury (who may go down in history as “Tacoby Bellsbury”) completed the task in Game 2, stealing second base in the bottom of the fourth and thereby gifting everyone in the United States a free beef taco.

That's a 77-cent value, so in theory, Taco Bell is on the hook for $233.5 million, not counting the odd foreign tourist that might slip in. The division's U.S. sales last year were $6.3 billion, including franchised restaurants, so that would be a considerable bite out of its business, but the number of people who will claim their prizes probably will be less than the 303.2 million population of the United States, and then you'd have to figure in what else they might buy once they show up at the restaurants.

“We don’t really know what to expect,” said Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch. Regardless, the exposure and brand awareness look to be positive. Even the players were caught discussing the promotion in the Red Sox dugout—shortstop Royce Clayton actually instructed Ellsbury to win America tacos the night before he pulled through—an advertisement both unplanned and priceless.

This isn't the first time that Taco Bell has wagered the country on tacos. In 2002, for example, Savage and his promotional team placed a floating target in San Francisco Bay, beyond the hometown Giants' stadium. Any player that could hit a ball out of the park and onto the target, a very difficult task, would win a nation’s worth of free tacos. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was no joy in Taco Belleville in 2002.

For the 2007 World Series, however, Taco Bell was ready to step up to the plate. “We knew the chances were very good that a base would be stolen during the Series,” said Poetsch. “We really wanted to get people out to the stores. And we wanted to move away from home runs, to ‘think outside the bun.’ " So to speak.

Besides feeding what are likely to be hungry hordes of taco lovers, Taco Bell and Major League Baseball will present their official charity, the Boys & Girls Club of America, with a $20,000 gift in Ellsbury's name.

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