Baseball Save Rule (9.19) and Hold Interpreter
Baseball Save Rule (9.19) and Hold Interpreter
Baseball’s save is credited under Rule 9.19 of the Official Baseball Rules, and it needs four conditions at once — not the three that Major League Baseball’s own glossary lists. This is the relief pitcher’s save, not the goaltender’s. A hold, meanwhile, is in no rulebook at all.
Does this outing qualify as a save?
Rule 9.19, four conditionsA reliever who finished a game his team won, was not the winning pitcher, recorded three outs, and entered with a lead of no more than three runs
The four conditions, and which of them MLB’s own glossary states
| Rule 9.19 | What it requires | Stated in MLB’s glossary? |
|---|---|---|
| (a) | he is the finishing pitcher in a game won by his team | yes — “finishes a game for the winning team” |
| (b) | he is not the winning pitcher | yes — “cannot receive a save and a win in the same game” |
| (c) | he is credited with at least a third of an inning pitched | NO — the entry does not mention it anywhere |
| (d)(1) | a lead of no more than three runs, and at least one inning pitched | yes, as the first of three bullets |
| (d)(2) | the potential tying run on base, at bat or on deck | yes, as the second bullet |
| (d)(3) | at least three innings pitched | yes, as the third bullet |
Three alternatives, and what each one does NOT require
| Alternative | Innings it requires | Lead it requires | A case it alone allows |
|---|---|---|---|
| (d)(1) — a narrow lead | at least one inning, on top of (c) | no more than three runs | a routine ninth inning with a two-run lead and three outs |
| (d)(2) — the tying run close | nothing beyond the third of an inning in (c) | none at all | one out with the bases loaded and a two-run lead |
| (d)(3) — a long outing | at least three innings | none at all | the last three innings of a nine-run win |
The save, the hold and the blown save: three statistics, one rulebook entry
| Save | Hold | Blown save | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defined in the Official Baseball Rules | yes, at Rule 9.19 | no — the rulebook is silent on it | no — the rulebook is silent on it |
| Published by Major League Baseball | yes, in the rules and in the glossary | yes, a glossary entry of its own | yes, through Gameday |
| Who created it | the rulemakers | John Dewan and Mike O’Donnell, 1986, at STATS, Inc. | Rolaids, 1988, for its Relief Man Awards |
| Do the statistics providers agree? | it is a rule, so yes | no — totals differ from site to site | no — one Wild Card outing was a blown save at Baseball-Reference and Gameday and not at FanGraphs |
| Does it need the team to have won? | yes, under (a) | no — MLB’s glossary asks only that he keep the lead while he is in the game | no |
| Minimum work required | a third of an inning, under (c) | at least one out, per MLB’s glossary | not stated in anything read here |
Four conditions, all of them at once, and the one Major League Baseball’s glossary leaves out
Two sports use the word “save” for two unrelated things, and this is the baseball one: a statistic CREDITED to a relief pitcher after the fact, under Rule 9.19 of the Official Baseball Rules, when four separate conditions all hold. It is a yes or a no about one appearance. Ice hockey’s save is an event during play — a shot on goal that the goaltender stopped — and its statistic is a rate, saves divided by shots faced, which is a different kind of quantity with a different kind of answer. Nothing on this page is a percentage, nothing here is divided by anything, and no figure here converts into a goaltender’s save percentage. If you arrived here for the goaltending statistic, the ice hockey save percentage calculator is the page you want, and field hockey has its own because the FIH and the NHL do not define a shot on goal the same way.
Rule 9.19 is a conjunction, and almost every explanation of it is not. The rule gives four conditions and a save needs all four: (a) he is the finishing pitcher in a game won by his team; (b) he is not the winning pitcher; (c) he is credited with at least a third of an inning pitched; and (d) he satisfies one of three further situations. Within (d) one alternative is enough, and each of the three is independently sufficient — a lead of no more than three runs with at least one inning pitched, or the potential tying run on base, at bat or on deck, or three innings pitched. Everywhere else in the rule the word is and. Three conditions out of four is not a near miss and not a partial save; it is no save, and the rule has no partial credit anywhere in it.
Major League Baseball’s rulebook and Major League Baseball’s glossary disagree about how many conditions there are, and the glossary is the document most explanations are working from. The glossary entry says a save “is awarded to the relief pitcher who finishes a game for the winning team, under certain circumstances”, adds that “A pitcher cannot receive a save and a win in the same game”, and then lists three bullets — which are precisely (d)’s three alternatives. The third of an inning in (c) is nowhere on the page. The practical difference is narrow and real: a reliever who enters with the tying run on deck, gives up a hit and is taken out without recording an out meets the glossary’s test and fails the rulebook’s. This page follows the rulebook and prints the gap rather than choosing quietly, which is the same thing the batting average and on-base calculator does where the two documents differ about on-base percentage’s denominator.
A hold is not in the Official Baseball Rules at all, and that absence is the second finding on this page. The question was checked rather than assumed, because a statistic Major League Baseball publishes in its own glossary looks official. It is not: the Hardball Times states that it is “easy to assume blown saves and holds are official statistics” and that “They are not”, and that the rulebook “is silent on holds and blown saves”. The hold “was introduced by John Dewan and Mike O’Donnell in 1986” through STATS, Inc.; Rolaids adopted the blown save in 1988 for its Relief Man Awards. Wikipedia, cited here only as corroboration, independently says “The hold is not an official [Major League Baseball] statistic” and names the same two inventors and the same year. The consequence is the one you would predict from a convention rather than a rule: “different sources have different definitions for both holds and blown saves”, and one Wild Card outing was a blown save at Baseball-Reference and at MLB’s own Gameday and not at FanGraphs. A save total is a rule being applied; a hold total is a provider’s reading, and two providers’ hold totals need not match.
What this page does not do. It does not count saves, blown saves or holds over a season, because that is a list of appearances rather than a calculation. It does not apply the hold definition, because applying a definition no rulebook carries would mean picking one provider’s reading and presenting it as the answer — the position this site takes on Total QBR and on wins above replacement for the same reason. And it makes no judgement about whether the save rule is a good statistic: the three alternatives in (d) are wide enough that a three-inning mop-up in a nine-run win and a one-out appearance with the bases loaded sit in the same column, which is an argument worth having and not one this page settles. The figures that describe the same outing without any of this are on the earned run average calculator and the WHIP and pitching rates calculator, and the starter’s equivalent of a credited verdict about one outing is the quality start interpreter, which is also in no rulebook.
Frequently asked questions
What are the conditions for a save in baseball?
Four, all of which must hold, under Rule 9.19 of the Official Baseball Rules: he finished a game his team won; he was not the winning pitcher; he was credited with at least a third of an inning; and he satisfies one of three further situations — a lead of no more than three runs with at least one inning pitched, the potential tying run on base, at bat or on deck, or three innings pitched.
Does MLB’s glossary get the save rule wrong?
It is incomplete rather than wrong. The glossary gives the finishing-pitcher condition, the no-win condition and the three alternative situations, and omits the rulebook’s requirement of at least a third of an inning. A pitcher removed without recording an out therefore qualifies under the glossary’s wording and not under Rule 9.19(c).
Can a pitcher get a save without pitching a full inning?
Yes, on two of the three branches. Entering with the potential tying run on base, at bat or on deck carries no innings requirement beyond the third of an inning that Rule 9.19(c) imposes on every save. Only the three-run-lead branch asks for a full inning of its own.
Is a hold an official baseball statistic?
No. Major League Baseball publishes a Hold entry in its statistics glossary, but the Official Baseball Rules define no hold at all — the Hardball Times puts it as the rulebook being “silent on holds and blown saves”. It was introduced by John Dewan and Mike O’Donnell in 1986 at STATS, Inc., and because it is a convention rather than a rule, providers’ hold totals do not always agree with each other.
Is a baseball save the same as a save in ice hockey?
No, and not even the same kind of quantity. Ice hockey’s save is an event — a shot on goal the goaltender stopped — and its statistic is a rate, saves over shots faced. Baseball’s save is a verdict credited after the game to one relief pitcher when four separate rulebook conditions all hold. Nothing on this page is a percentage and no figure here converts into a save percentage.
Why does a three-inning outing in a one-sided win count as a save?
Because Rule 9.19(d)(3) asks only for three innings and says nothing about the score. It is one of the three alternatives and it is independently sufficient, so the lead can be any size. That branch is in the rule rather than in any interpretation of it.
Related calculators
References
- Official Baseball Rules, Rule 9.19, Saves for Relief Pitchers — a save is credited to a relief pitcher who satisfies ALL FOUR of: (a) he is the finishing pitcher in a game won by his team; (b) he is not the winning pitcher; (c) he is credited with at least a third of an inning pitched; and (d) he satisfies one of three further conditions — (1) he enters with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches at least one inning, (2) he enters, regardless of the count, with the potential tying run on base, at bat or on deck, or (3) he pitches at least three innings. Read on baseballrulesacademy.com, 15 Oct 2026, independently of batch S05’s reading of the same rule on 12 Oct, which agreed. The official 2024 Edition PDF was fetched whole by that batch and its extracted text stops inside Rule 5.09, so the subsection lettering here is single-sourced to this reproduction.
- Official Baseball Rules, Rule 9.19, Saves for Relief Pitchers — a save needs ALL of four conditions, not three: finishing a game the team wins, not being the winning pitcher, at least a third of an inning, and one of three situations (a lead of no more than three runs plus an inning pitched; the potential tying run on base, at bat or on deck; or three innings). baseballrulesacademy.com (read 12 Oct 2026).
- Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. Official Baseball Rules, 2024 Edition (ISBN 978-1-63727-386-9), fetched as a PDF 12 Oct 2026. Its extracted text is 109,942 characters and stops inside Rule 5.09, while its own contents page lists Rule 9.16 on page 132 and Rule 9.21 on page 141 — so the scoring chapter is cited below through a reproduction and MLB’s own glossary, not from this document.
- Major League Baseball. Glossary: Save (SV) — “A save is awarded to the relief pitcher who finishes a game for the winning team, under certain circumstances”, and “A pitcher cannot receive a save and a win in the same game.” It then lists THREE conditions, one of which must be met: entering with a lead of no more than three runs and pitching at least one inning; entering with the tying run in the on-deck circle, at the plate or on the bases; or pitching at least three innings. IT DOES NOT STATE THE THIRD-OF-AN-INNING REQUIREMENT that Rule 9.19(c) imposes, and it cites no rule number. mlb.com (read 15 Oct 2026).
- Major League Baseball. Glossary: Hold (HLD) — “A hold occurs when a relief pitcher enters the game in a save situation”, keeps the lead and records at least one out, under one of two situations: a lead of three runs or fewer, or entering with the tying run on deck, at the plate or on base. The entry cites no rule number, does not reference the Official Baseball Rules, and does not say the statistic is unofficial. mlb.com (read 15 Oct 2026).
- “The Unofficial Rules: Of Holds and Blown Saves.” The Hardball Times, tht.fangraphs.com — “It’s easy to assume blown saves and holds are official statistics”, and “They are not”; the Official Rules of Major League Baseball cover scoring for wins, losses and saves and the piece states that it “is silent on holds and blown saves”. The hold “was introduced by John Dewan and Mike O’Donnell in 1986” through STATS, Inc.; Rolaids adopted the blown save in 1988 for its Relief Man Awards. “different sources have different definitions for both holds and blown saves” — David Robertson’s Wild Card outing “was a blown save to Baseball-Reference and Gameday, but not to FanGraphs”, and MLB.com Gameday assigns both “despite the lack of official MLB status” (read 15 Oct 2026).
- Wikipedia. Hold (baseball) — “The hold is not an official [Major League Baseball] statistic”; “The hold was invented in 1986 by John Dewan and Mike O’Donnell”; and “the hold totals do not always agree from site to site”, Baseball-Reference and The Baseball Cube reconstructing pre-1999 holds from the game situation and not always matching each other or MLB.com. A WIKI, and the weakest source on the save page; it is cited only because it corroborates the Hardball Times article on the attribution, the year and the unofficial status (read 15 Oct 2026).