A pitcher can earn a save by completing ALL three of the following items:
Finishes the game won by his team.
Does not receive the win.
Meets one of the following three items:
a: Enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches at least one inning.
b: Enters the game with the tying run either on base, at bat, or on deck.
c: Pitches effectively for at least three innings.
3 sub c seems to be covered by the points above it, why is it even mentioned?
What is the simplest way to explain the rules for scoring a save?
3c is there because it is an alternative to the other conditions.
Consider, your team is winning 5-0 after 5 innings. Your pitcher stumbles going to the mound in the 6th and braeks his toe - out he goes.
The relief pitcher comes in and strikes out the next 12 batters he faces to end the game. He can be awarded a save by his stellar performance, though by the other conditions set forth, he would seem to be ineligible for a save.
You have paraphrased MLB rules. Although the MLB rule book does not always use the most precise language, this one seems pretty clear. Not sure what you don’t like. Each of those three conditions could occur without either of the other two:
a: Enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches at least one inning.
Home pitcher enters the game in the top of the 9th, one run ahead, with no one on. Tying run is in the hole. Pitcher puts the next three batters out to end the game. Conditions b and c do not apply.
b: Enters the game with the tying run either on base, at bat, or on deck.
Home pitcher enters the game in the top of the 9th, four runs ahead with the bases loaded, therefore tying run on deck. Pitches only one inning. Puts three batters out, one left on, to end the game. Conditions a and c do not apply.
c: Pitches effectively for at least three innings.
Home pitcher enters the game in the top of the 6th, four runs ahead with no one on. Pitches for three innings, visitors score 3 runs but home team still wins. Conditions a and b do not apply.
Instead of “one run ahead”, you meant “three runs ahead”, right? Otherwise, condition (b) would indeed apply, as the tying run would be at the plate with a one-run lead.
The vast majority of saves in baseball now are “pitcher pitches one complete inning with lead of less than three runs.” That is how contemporary managers have decided to use the closer.
The “pitches three innings” save doesn’t happen all that often unless it’s a blowout.
Managers are hesitant to use their closers with runners on base already so 3b is less common now, although that was the more common use in the 1960s and 70s.
The rules section on scoring doesn’t define it, and the section on definitionsdoesn’t either.
There are a lot of judgement calls in sports and I guess this is one of them. It’s the judgement of the scorekeeper, because this is strictly a scorekeeping issue. It has no bearing on the playing of the game as to whether a reliever is credited with a save or not, just a matter of the pitcher’s stats. Similar to deciding whether a play was an error.
The same subjectivity in assessing “effectiveness” applies when the official scorer decides on the winning pitcher if it’s not the starting pitcher. Normally, a reliever is the winning pitcher if he’s the pitcher of record when his team goes ahead to stay. But the official scorer can take away the win if the reliever is deemed ineffective.
A win or save can be taken away if the pitcher is deemed to have pitched “briefly and ineffectively”.
I’ve never seen a save removed for that reason. It’s hard to be so ineffective and not have your team still win.
I’ve seen relievers lose out on wins. Usually a situation where a pitchers comes in and gives up a couple of hits, gets the last out of the inning on a baserunning error of some type and then his team rallies.
It’s a judgment call, and this combination of circumstances is so rare that such judgment will probably never need to be exercised again.
As others have noted, any invocation of 3(c) is rare these days. Relief pitchers seldom go three innings except in very long relief or extra inning games, and in neither case do multi-inning saves apply. I’d love to see stats on saves by rule (a, b, or c) and year; my guess is that 3(c) saves have declined to a point where you don’t see more than one or two a year in all of MLB.
On top of that, to have a 3(c) pitcher be ineffective strains the imagination. An example would be a pitcher entering in the sixth inning with a 10-0 lead and holding on for a 10-8 win. This may have happened at one time, but not today. With seven guys in the bullpen and a full-time multi-million-dollar closer on staff, the guy giving up eight runs isn’t gonna be allowed to finish the game. The word “effectively” is an anachronism.