There is no rule as that solely covers the intentional walk, it is a walk like any other. The term is an expression used by baseball. A walk is a walk - four balls, nothing in the rule book says you can just let a runner to go to first base without throwing a pitch. To walk someone, intentional or otherwize, a pitcher has to throw 4 balls. Could baseball make a rule to preclude the 4 pitches for the intentional walk? Sure they could, but I doubt it will happen soon.
wil.