Winning Pitcher — Luebbers: Starting Pitchers’ Wins of Less Than Five Innings

October 3, 1999. Dateline-St. Louis.

This was a weird one. Only on the last day of the season could something as truly remarkable as this happen. And, of course, it had to involve the Cubs. In a meaningless game that had no possible effect on the pennant races, the 67-94 Chicago Cubs visited the 74-86 St. Louis Cardinals, as the Cubs’ Steve Trachsel (8-18) took to the hill against the Cards’ Larry Luebbers (2-3).

The most amazing event that took place that day was (pick one):

A. Both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa homered in the same game.

B. McGwire’s homer came against Trachsel, who also gave up McGwire’s historic, record breaking sixty-second home run in 1998.

C. Rookie Rick Ankiel picked up his first, and perhaps his only, major league save.

D. None of the above.

The correct answer is “D.” The game featured two rain delays and was called after the fifth inning, resulting in a rain-shortened 9-5 win for the Cardinals. Although scoring 14 runs in 4-1/2 innings is impressive enough, even more amazing is that Cardinals’ starting pitcher Larry Luebbers was credited with the win for pitching four innings. The Cards’ complete pitching line score is repeated below:

 

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	NP
Luebbers, W (3-3)	4	6	5	5	0	1	76
Ankiel, S (1)	1	0	0	0	0	1	5

 

 

How could Luebbers have been credited with a win for pitching only four innings in a game in which he was the starting pitcher? This surely flies in the face of the immutable rule, learned by all fans in their youth, that the starter must go at least five innings to pick up the win. How many times have we watched a starting pitcher nurse a one-run lead, struggling with one or two out in the fifth inning, as his manager nervously fidgets in the dugout, hoping that he can avoid making that fateful call to the bullpen that will deny his starter a chance for the “W”?

On October 25, 2000, starting pitcher Denny Neagle was pulled with two out in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the 2000 “Subway Series,” in favor of an aging David Cone, who had been tragically ineffective all year. Yankees’ manager Joe Torre clearly dreaded pulling Neagle, but felt that strategic considerations compelled him to do so at that time. The team’s success obviously had to be a higher priority to Torre than the possibility of Neagle’s embellishing his career statistics with a World Series win.1

The answer to this apparent contradiction is to be found in Rule 10.19 of the Official Rules of Baseball.

The part we all know is:

Winning and losing pitcher—10.19 (a) Credit the starting pitcher with a game won only if he has pitched at least five complete innings and his team not only is in the lead when he is replaced but remains in the lead the remainder of the game.

But the arcane and seldom used part of the rule follows immediately thereafter:

(b) The “must pitch five complete innings” rule in respect to the starting pitcher shall be in effect for all games of six or more innings. In a five-inning game, credit the starting pitcher with a game won only if he has pitched at least four complete innings and his team not only is in the lead when he is replaced but remains in the lead the remainder of the game.

So Luebbers qualified for the win because of the exception to the rule regarding a starting pitcher’s needing to go five complete innings to qualify for a win: when the game itself is only five innings, the starter need go only four complete.2

This got me to wondering whether there were any other exceptions to the rule. There are. Subsection (g) of this rule provides that in “some non-championship games,” such as the major league All-Star Game, a starter who pitches “a stated number of innings, usually two or three,” may qualify for the win. This scoring rule is commonly used in exhibitions at various levels of play.

I had also heard rumblings that there was recently a time during which a starting pitcher could qualify for a win while pitching less than five innings in a regular season major league game. Yes and no. In recounting the end of the 1990 lockout, Kenneth M. Jennings noted that in the spring of 1990 the players and owners agreed to the following working condition: “Starting pitchers in the regular season’s first two weeks could earn a victory by pitching only three or four innings instead of the previously required five, unless the official scorer deemed they did not pitch effectively.”3

However, the April 3, 1990, New York Times reported that “The [players and owners], however, did not resurrect the rule modification that would have enabled starting pitchers to receive credit for victories even if they pitched only three or four innings instead of the required five. “4 An examination of the box scores for games played during the first week of the 1990 season also indicates that in no instance was a starting pitcher credited with a win for pitching fewer than five innings in a game that went six or more innings.

Therefore, Rule 10.19 is alive and well. Starting pitchers had better be prepared to go five or more innings if they want to garner a win. Unless, of course, it’s overcast and Larry Luebbers is on the mound …

Postscript

On June 1, 2001, in New York, Cleveland Indians’ rookie lefthander C.C. Sabathia was credited with a win against the Yankees in a game that was called after 5-1/2 innings due to rain. Sabathia continued the tradition of starting pitchers’ poor performances in their wins of less than five innings by allowing a run in each of the four innings he pitched, while yielding four hits and five walks. 

 

Notes

1. Things ended well for the Yankees as Cone retired the one batter he faced. Neagle fled from the Yankees to the Rockies via free agency two months later.

2. Only two other occasions since 1987 have starting pitchers been awarded wins in starts of less than five innings. On July 20, 1987, the Orioles’ Mike Griffin gave up one run over four innings in a rain-shortened 4-1 win over the White Sox. On July 20, 1992, Richie Lewis, also of the Orioles, picked up a win while pitching 4 1/3 innings against the Red Sox. (Lewis was sent to the minors the next day.) The author wishes to thank David Pinto for his research in identifying these two games.

3. K. Jennings, Balls and Strikes: Moribund Labor Relations in Professional Baseball (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1997), p. 15.

4. New York Times, April 3, 1990, p. 8, B-13.