Win Taken Away from Josh Edgin

Josh Edgin was supposed to be the winning pitcher in Saturday’s game against the Marlins; after all, he was the last pitcher on the mound for the Mets before they took the lead for good. However, the official scorer invoked a rarely-used rule to take the win away from him and give it to Brandon Lyon. Good for the official scorer.

Edgin came into the game in the top of the seventh with the Mets ahead 3-2, with Juan Pierre on second and two outs. Edgin allowed a single to Greg Dobbs to tie the game at three. He did not face another batter because Pierre ran into catcher John Buck after the play was over and was called for interference. The run still counted, but the batter was called out and the inning was over.

The Mets took the lead in the bottom of the inning, and Lyon came on and pitched a scoreless eighth.

Edgin was technically the pitcher of record because the runs scored while he was the pitcher. But after the game, official scorer Jordan Sprechman used a rule that says if a pitcher is “ineffective and brief,” the win can be awarded to another pitcher who was more effective.

It was definitely the correct decision; Josh Edgin did nothing to earn a win. In fact, he could have cost the Mets the game.

It is also a decision that should be used more often, especially when awarding saves. If a closer comes in, say, with a three-run lead and allows two runs, walks three batters to load the bases and then gets out of it, he does not deserve a save. He was ineffective and should not be rewarded with a save.

By the way, this game proves how useless the “hold” statistic is. Scott Atchison started that seventh inning and was charged with the tying run. But because he didn’t give up the actual hit that drove it in, he gets credit for a hold. That is just ridiculous. Holds count for nothing.

But hey, the Mets won, so who cares about all this stuff?!