Lately I’ve been noticing an abbreviation in baseball box scores that I can’t figure out. In the section describing the pitching activityI will often see something like: Lowe (7 innings, WP), Timlin (H, 1), Foulke (S, 10). I know what WP and S mean. But to what does H in his context refer?
Hold. It stands for ‘Hold’.
Hold is an unofficially official sort of stat in which credit for a ‘Hold’ is given to a pitcher when they enter a game in a theoretical ‘save’ situation but are not permitted to close the game.
In other words…if a relief pitcher enters the game in a save situation (that is with a lead of less than 3 runs or the tying batter in the on-deck circle etc ad nauseum…) and hands the game over to another relief pitcher with the save situation still intact (cannot blow a lead and then have the offense take the lead again…that would lead to a W for Win) then he may be credited with a ‘H’ for Hold by the official scorer … if in the opinion of the scorer that pitcher has pitched ‘effectively’.