Hold on and Save this

No bra

Yesterday afternoon at Citi Field the New York Mets went into the top of the ninth inning with a 4-1 lead over the San Francisco Giants.  The Mets brought in their closer, Frank Francisco in relief of starter Mike Pelfrey, and the following mayhem ensued:

B. Posey singled to center
A. Huff grounded out to pitcher, B. Posey to second
N. Schierholtz walked
E. Burriss singled to shallow center, B. Posey scored, N. Schierholtz to second
H. Sanchez hit for B. Crawford
T. Byrdak relieved F. Francisco
H. Sanchez struck out swinging
B. Pill hit for D. Otero
J. Rauch relieved T. ByrdakB. Belt hit for B. Pill
B. Belt doubled to shallow center, N. Schierholtz and E. Burriss scored
A. Pagan struck out swinging

3 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors -- San Francisco Giants 4, New York Mets 4.

The Mets rally in the bottom of the ninth to win the game, 5-4. And among others, we have the following statistics to digest:

Frank Francisco gets a "Hold." A "Hold" as in "held the lead."

Tim Byrdak gets a "Hold."

Jon Rauch gets a "Blown Save" and a "Win."

So, Frank Francisco is charged with all 3 runs (including the run the tied the game) in 1/3 of inning and does not get the save he was put in the ballgame to get, but he gets a positive counting stat by getting a "Hold."

I don’t have a problem with the Hold as a statistic for relief pitchers any more than I do with the Save. There are times when many stats can be a bit (to very) bogus. One of the best is when a pitcher gets two outs in an inning before a batter reaches on an error. The pitcher then proceeds to give up (say) 7 hits, including a couple of homers, and when the dust settles the pitcher is down 7-0.

All 7 runs would be unearned based on the fact that is the third batter in the innings had been put out instead of reaching on the error, the pitcher would not have allowed any runs. That’s akin to saying that if my aunt didn’t have big ta tas she’d be my uncle.

In reality, didn’t Francisco blow the save? If a player is put into the game to do something, and he doesn’t do it, shouldn’t he be charged with a negative stat? And how is it that he gets a Hold when it was "his" run that tied the game? Tim Byrdak came into the game when the Mets had the lead, and struck out the one batter he faced. He certainly earned that Hold a lot more than Francisco earned his.



Yes bra

Look, I know the rules that govern how all of this works, and understand the importance of trying to quantify and qualify numbers for all pitchers, I am just get tired sometimes of my uncle needing to wear that big brassiere.