Scenario - score is tied, say, 3-3 after 9 innings. Both teams bring in new pitchers for the 10th. With the ghost runner on 2nd, a fly ball out moves the runner to third. Again, a sac fly and the run scores. Last guy strikes out. Home team doesn’t score. Visitors win 4-3. Who gets the loss? The relief pitcher didn’t put the winning run on base, so he shouldn’t get the loss. But who would? How does this work now? What if the ghost runner steals 3rd and then home? Same question.
I’m pretty sure the loss always goes to whoever is on the mound at the time of the winning run, even if a previous pitcher is actually more responsible. This is offset by being considered an unearned run for the reliever’s ERA.
Nope. The official rule says:
If a pitcher is pulled mid-inning, with runners on base whom he allowed to reach base, those runners are his responsibility.
So, if the go-ahead run is a runner who is the responsibility of Pitcher A (i.e., he allowed that runner on base, via a hit, walk, etc.), even if Pitcher A has been relieved by Pitcher B when the go-ahead runner scores, Pitcher A gets the loss.
In this case, AIUI, the reliever who opens the 10th inning is considered to be “responsible” for the ghost runner, even though he did not actually face that runner at the plate, and did not allow that runner on base via a hit, walk, etc.
They could have done the logical thing and score it as a “ghost run”, charged to nobody.
As noted by @Elmer_J.Fudd, it’s an unearned run (as the pitcher did not actually put the runner on base), but baseball scoring requires that there be a pitcher who is charged with the loss.
FWIW, I think that the extra-inning “ghost runner” is a terrible idea.