The last out of the fifth inning has been historically difficult for a starting pitcher to register, especially when his team holds a narrow lead.
Why? A starter needs to go five innings to qualify for a win, and until the advent of advanced analytics, the wins category was a primary measure of effectiveness.
No longer. Yet it’s still meaningful to a future Hall-of-Famer with a .657 career winning percentage.
Max Scherzer gutted out a torturous fifth in the Dodgers’ 4-3 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday to record his 186th career victory against just 97 losses and his third win against zero losses since coming to L.