Wanted to clear up something that I had wrong.
Say you get down to where your opponent has 4 balls and you have one (or whatever the number is) and you are looking to tie up some balls because you don't have a decent shot. You cannot hit their (say solid, when you're stripes) first and make it tie up other balls, that was loss of rack, or depending on which TD you have unsportsmanlike. In 8 ball there are plenty of times where you can't get out and tying up the opponents ball forcing them to use a creative breakout is the only way to keep your game chances alive.