Last night, playing MLB 08: The Show, I pinch hit Nyjer Morgan for Peter Maholm when the score was 1-1 in the top of the 5th. Morgan ground out but the following batter hit a homerun, making it 2-1. In the bottom of the 5th, I pulled Nyjer (obviously) and put in Hong-Chih Kuo, who maintained the lead until Matt Capps got the save in the 9th, 5-2.
Since Maholm pitched the half inning before we took the lead, Nyjer was the “pitcher” when we took the lead, and Kuo pitched the inning of the lead, who gets the win? Who’s the pitcher of record for the top of the 5th?
A second question: I once had a position player who had pinch-hit for the pitcher forced to pitch to “at least one batter”. Why? My best guess was that I had no one in the bullpen warming up and couldn’t go off the bench. Is this a rule of the MLB or just a rule the game designers had to put in so a pitcher would have non-zero ‘warmness’. Any other time, I seem to have no problems yanking the outfielder off the mound before he throws a pitch.
I’m pretty sure that Maholm would get the decision. I believe that the scorer would recognize the difference between an actual “pitcher of record” and a pinch-hitter who was in the line-up at the moment that the lead changed, only because he had hit in the pitcher’s spot.
That’s a fluke of the video game, and you’re probably right, it was probably because you didn’t have a reliever warmed up. There’s no rule in baseball that says a pinch-hitter for a pitcher must then pitch to at least a batter (if there were, pinch-hitting in the NL would look a LOT different).
That’s what I would think too, and indeed what the game gave Maholm the win. Yet I know that in the Road to the Show mode (a career mode), I’ve earned a win for pinch hitting and hitting the walkoff homerun, despite being the first baseman. I’m pretty sure real life wouldn’t work that way.
But I don’t think he would have had to pitch because he was a pinch hitter…I think it was for some other reason. Is there anything that says you can’t change the pitcher without him throwing at least one pitch? Like, say, can I put a guy on the mound and have him ‘warm up’ with the catcher, when really I’m just buying time for a real pitcher to warm up in the pen? Or maybe it’s because a batter was already in the box, or that combined with something else. In real life, you can sub out the pitcher while your team is in the dugout but in the game, you have to wait til you’re on defense. I’m thinking that maybe there’s a rule that a RL team avoids by doing the sub before the defensive half-inning that I can’t avoid similarly.
As I understand it, it’s quite easy to define, though sometimes difficult to figure out – the winning pitcher is the pitcher who is in the game when his team goes ahead to stay. I believe that a pitcher who has been pinch hit for remains pitcher of record (though of course ineligible to continue play) until the reliever replacing him takes the mound.
The losing pitcher, on the other hand, is the pitcher who allowed the winning run to get on base. It’s thus quite possible for the winner and loser in the same game to have never actually faced each other.
Ths starting pitcher has to complete at least 5 innings in order to get the win. Since Maholm only pitched 4, he’s ineligible.
If, as in this situation, the game never becomes tied again, it’s up to the official scorer to determine which releiver deserves the win. In your case, that would be Kuo, since he was the only reliever besides the closer.
Polycarp’s got it, with this exception: since your starting pitcher did not go five innings, he cannot get the win. The official scorer can assign the win to whoever he believes was the most deserving in the remainder of the game. In this case, apparently your long reliever.
As the other posters state, it’s the last guy to throw a pitch when your team takes the lead for good (except that starters have to last at least five innings). Had this all happened in the Sixth, Maholm would be the pitcher of record no mattter who was hitting in his spot until someone else took the mound.
Rule 10.17(c) does give the official scorer some leeway in declaring who is the winning pitcher. Say a pitcher comes in with a 5-run lead but gives up 6 runs in his one inning. Then his team scores 2 in the next half inning and holds on to win. The crappy pitcher would normally get the win, but the official scorer would rightfully give the win to someone who pitched later on in the game and held the lead.
An interesting real-world example occurred in yesterday’s Nats win over the Braves. As the bottom of the 8th opened, the Nats were down 3-1. Braves reliever Mike Gonzales gave up a single to Ronnie Belliard. Next up was the pitcher’s spot, filled by pinch hitter Josh Bard, so Nats starter John Lannan is done for the day. Gonzales walks Bard, gives up a sac bunt, and then walks Nick Johnson to load the bases. Gonzales is pulled for Peter Moylen. Note that at this point, the score is still 3-1 Braves, and both Lannan and Gonzales are out of the game. Moylen gives up a two-run single (3-3); he is pulled for Eric O’Flahrety who gives up two RBI singles, and the Nats hold on in the ninth for the win.
So the interesting part is that Lannan gets the win and Gonzales the loss, even though they were both in the showers at the time. Lannan because his team scored the winning run before another National had cause to throw a pitch; Gonzales because even though other pitchers plated the tying (Moylen) and winning (O’Flahrety) runs, Gonzales put them on base.