Let me get this straight. Pitcher leaves with 1 run deficit

[davus]

Relievers come in and decide losing by 1 run is not enough, so lets give up like 5 more just to make sure we can't come back and win this thing.

So then team A comes back and scores a few more runs so that if the relief staff hadn't have given up so many extra runs, team A would have actually won it.

So the original pitcher then gets credit for the loss because team A never tied the game or took the lead?

[stevethumb]

well..yeah !!! he left the game w/his team behind..the score was subsequently never tied..of course it's a LOSS for the SP

[beatdrum]

[TheYanks04]

Yup! If the starter had done his job he would not have been losing in the first place or necessitated having to go to the pen. At least that is the rational as in the old days pitchers finished what they started.

[Octavian]

well..yeah !!! he left the game w/his team behind..the score was subsequently never tied..of course it's a LOSS for the SP

Hehe, baseball 101!

[davus]

K. I just think it seems kinda raw for the guy who leaves losing 1-0 and the final score is 11-8 or something and he gets the loss....as an extreme example.

[TheYanks04]

Well they also get the W for games where they leave after 5 IPs up 8-7 and their team holds on. So it all is sort of relative and works both ways.

[riverrat]

If I remember correctly(being an old-timer, its hard sometimes) this wasnt always the rule. This is a relatively new rule instituted about 30-40 yrs ago. It used to be if the SP gave up x-amount of runs, thats it. If the RP gave up the eventual "losing run", he got tagged for the loss.
Anybody out there confirm this?