MLB pitcher gets first career win thanks to odd scoring quirk

Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Chad Smith picked up the first win of his major league career on Wednesday as the team defeated the Baltimore Orioles, 8-4.

But just obtaining the win in his 16th career appearance wasn’t the main part of the interesting story. He received the win thanks to a rarely applied official scoring rule.

Smith pitched the final two innings of the win over the Orioles. He held Baltimore scoreless and allowed only one hit after entering the game in the bottom of the eighth. Oakland scored three runs in the top of the inning to take a 7-4 lead in the game.

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Usually, it would mean that reliever Jeurys Familia – who pitched the bottom of the seventh and was in the game when Oakland took the lead – would have been awarded the win. But the official scorer for the game chose not to give Familia the win because he was deemed to have a short, ineffective outing.

Familia entered the game with one out in the seventh inning, a man on first and Oakland already up 4-2. Hitting from Cedric Mullins and Adley Rutschmann would help tie the game. But Familia would eventually get out of the inning.

But the scorer can make a decision on who gets credited with the win.

Rule 9.17 (c) states: "The official scorer shall not credit as the winning pitcher a relief pitcher who is ineffective in a brief appearance, when at least one succeeding relief pitcher pitches effectively in helping his team maintain its lead. In such a case, the official scorer shall credit as the winning pitcher the succeeding relief pitcher who was most effective, in the judgment of the official scorer."

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Additionally, the rulebook says: "The official scorer generally should, but is not required to, consider the appearance of a relief pitcher to be ineffective and brief if such relief pitcher pitches less than one inning and allows two or more earned runs to score (even if such runs are charged to a previous pitcher)."

Of the two runs allowed during Familia’s appearance, he was charged with one and the other to Oakland starter Ken Waldichuk.

Smith was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas and left for Oakland at around 2:45 a.m. PT. He told reporters he was told he had gotten the save in the game.

"I was told it was a save," he said. "I guess now that you say it's a win, I guess it's a win. It's great. This is why we play the game."

Smith was selected in the 11th round of the 2016 MLB Amateur Draft by the Miami Marlins. The Marlins traded him to the Colorado Rockies in 2020 and he made his major league debut last season with the Rockies.

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In December, the Athletics acquired him in a trade from the Rockies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.