 If you look at the criteria for wins and saves, you discover something very interesting that can occur, which is that a pitcher can actually earn a win or a save without facing a batter, or even more rarely without actually throwing a pitch. In fact, from 1918 through 2012, which is complete as I am recording this, there have been 20 games in which a pitcher has earned a win without facing a batter. And there have been 16 games that the pitcher has earned a save without facing a batter. So how would this be possible? Well, for the games that we actually have pitch by pitch data from, we can see that one of those saves took place without the pitcher actually throwing a pitch. And it is typical of the way that this situation would arise. On April 28, 1989, the Padres played the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Cubs entered the ninth inning, winning three to nothing. Paul Kilgis was having a great day on the mound for Chicago, and so he went back out for the ninth inning to try and complete the game. Unfortunately for him, the inning got a bit out of hand, and a few hits and an error led to a situation of one run in, two runners on, and two outs. So with Kilgis already having thrown 112 pitches, the Cubs decided to bring in Mitch Williams to close the game. Being that the Cubs were up by two runs and there were two runners on base, this meant that this was a safe situation. But before he even threw a pitch, Williams spun around and picked off San Diego's Carmelo Martinez, who was on second base. And so because he had recorded the out and technically pitched that one-third of an inning, Mitch Williams earned the save without having ever thrown a pitch.