Spahn not only is a superior pitcher but a gentlemanly fine fellow, a ball player's ball player, as they say in the trade.

Spalding's. 796 career winning percentage ( from an era when teams played about once or twice a week ) is the highest ever achieved by a baseball pitcher.

An occasional exception to this logic is a pitcher with a very high strikeout rate.

* SV — Save: number of games where the pitcher enters a game led by the pitcher's team, finishes the game without surrendering the lead, is not the winning pitcher, and either ( a ) the lead was three runs or fewer when the pitcher entered the game ; ( b ) the potential tying run was on base, at bat, or on deck ; or ( c ) the pitcher pitched three or more innings

* SVO — Save opportunity: When a pitcher 1 ) enters the game with a lead of three or fewer runs and pitches at least one inning, 2 ) enters the game with the potential tying run on base, at bat, or on deck, or 3 ) pitches three or more innings with a lead and is credited with a save by the official scorer

If a pitcher throws 100 pitches at which batters swing, and the batters fail to make contact on 26 of them, the pitcher's whiff rate is 26 %.

" At bat ", " up ", " up at bat ", and " at the plate " are all phrases describing a batter who is facing the pitcher.

In baseball, an earned run is any run for which the pitcher is held accountable ( i. e., the run scored as a result of normal pitching, and not due to a fielding error or a passed ball ).

Any runner ( s ) who tags his base and reaches home plate is scored against the pitcher as an earned run ( s ).

An error made by the pitcher in fielding at his position is counted the same as an error by any other player.

The benefit of the doubt is always given to the pitcher in determining which bases would have been reached by errorless play.

When pitchers are changed in the middle of an inning, and one or more errors have already occurred, it is possible to have a run charged as earned against a specific pitcher, but unearned to the team.

The runner who reached on the error comes around to score, and his run is unearned to both the prior pitcher and the team.

However, the run scored by the batter is counted as earned against the relief pitcher, but unearned to the team ( since there should have already been three outs ).

When a pitching change occurs, the new pitcher is said to " inherit " any runners that are on base at the time, and if they later score, those runs are charged ( earned or unearned ) to the prior pitcher.

A base on balls ( BB ) is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls.

and buggies and wagons and chugging Fords kept gathering all morning, until the edges of the field were packed thick and small boys kept scampering out on the playing field to make fun of the visitors -- whose pitcher was a formidable looking young man with the only baseball cap.

Following the formation of baseball's first professional organization, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players, which became known as the National Association, the Association, or NA, in 1871, Spalding joined the Boston Red Stockings ( precursor club to the modern Atlanta Braves ) and was highly successful ; winning 206 games ( and losing only 53 ) as a pitcher and batting. 323 as a hitter.

* CG — Complete game: number of games where player was the only pitcher for his team

Finally, for 1950 only, runners would be credited with a stolen base if they were " well advanced " toward the base they were attempting to steal ", and the pitcher is charged with a balk, with the further exception of a player attempting to steal, who would otherwise have been forced to advance on the balk by a runner behind them.

The only home run ball ever hit completely out of Memorial Stadium was slugged by Robinson on Mother's Day in 1966, off Cleveland Indians pitcher Luis Tiant.

In May 1981, Len Barker threw a perfect game against the Toronto Blue Jays, joining Addie Joss as the only other Indian pitcher to do so.

Prior to 1970, writers only voted for the best pitcher and used a formula of one point per vote.

In 1978, Gaylord Perry ( age 40 ) became the oldest pitcher to receive the award, only to have the record broken in 2004 by Roger Clemens ( age 42 ).

When the season ended, he posted a 1. 26 ERA, which gave him not only the lowest in his career, but also gave him a Major League record of being the oldest pitcher with 150 + innings pitched to post a season ERA under 1. 50.

Vowels " o " and " u " appear to have not been phonetically distinguished based on the nature of the writing system, as only one symbol is used to cover both in loans from Greek ( e. g. Greek kōthōn > Etruscan qutun " pitcher ").

Umbricht was the only Colt. 45s pitcher to post a winning record in Houston's first two seasons.

They were one of only two current Major League teams to never have a pitcher throw a no-hitter, the other being the San Diego Padres.

Former pitcher Larry Christenson, the starting pitcher in the original game, came out wearing this old burgundy uniform, and was the only one to do so.

An anomaly in power pitching annals, Martínez is the only 20th-century pitcher to notch 300 strikeouts in a season without being at least six feet tall.

" Clemens was the only starting pitcher since Vida Blue in to win a league MVP award until Justin Verlander won the award in.

The Astros scored an average of only 3. 5 runs per game in games in which he was the pitcher of record.

In the World Series Clemens became the first ( and only pitcher ) to pitch against the Mets in a World Series while with both the Red Sox and the Yankees, having been with the Red Sox in.

With his 2004 win, he joined Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martínez as the only pitchers to win it in both leagues and became the oldest pitcher to ever win the Cy Young.

In 1998, Henderson and Valenzuela were gone, but newly acquired ( from the 1997 World Series champion Florida Marlins ) pitcher Kevin Brown had a sensational year ( his only one with the Padres ) and outfielder / slugger Greg Vaughn bounced back after a poor 1997 season and hit 50 home runs ( overlooked in that season of the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa race ).

* October 8 – Baseball pitcher Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the only perfect game in World Series history in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The opposing pitcher, Bob Hendley, allows only 1 run, which is unearned.

Likewise, the pitcher is recorded as having given up a hit, a run for each runner that scores including the batter, and an earned run each for the batter and for all baserunners who did not initially reach base on error, except that the runs scored by any runners who reached base while facing an earlier pitcher are charged to that pitcher.

Catchers tend to be charged with a significantly higher number of passed balls when a knuckleball pitcher is on the mound.

During the first All Star Game of ( one of two played in the park — the other was in ), Giants pitcher Stu Miller was blown off balance by a gust of wind and was charged with a balk.

In baseball, a wild pitch ( abbreviated WP ) is charged against a pitcher when his pitch is too high, too short, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to control with ordinary effort, thereby allowing a baserunner, perhaps even the batter-runner on strike three, to advance.

A pitcher receives credit for ( and a batter is charged with ) a strikeout on any third strike, but a batter is out only if one of the following is true:

On August 4, 1960, Martin, then playing for the Reds, charged the mound in the second inning after receiving a brushback pitch from Chicago Cubs pitcher Jim Brewer.

The runner is put out on a fielder's choice, and a wild pitch / passed ball would not be charged to the pitcher or catcher.

If a pitching substitution occurs while a runner is on base, and that runner eventually scores a run, the pitcher who allowed the player to get on base is charged with the run even though he was no longer pitching when the run scored.

A blown save ( abbreviated BS or B ) is charged to a pitcher who enters a game in a situation which permits him to earn a save ( a save situation or save opportunity ), but who instead allows the tying run to score.

Note that if the tying run was scored by a runner who was already on base when the new pitcher entered the game, that new pitcher will be charged with a blown save even though the run will not be charged to the new pitcher, but rather to the pitcher who allowed that runner to reach base.