 At the end of every baseball game there is a winning and a losing pitcher that is determined throughout the course of the game and it's based on which pitcher gave up what runs and a few other things that we're about to look at here. So in this video I want to look at how to determine which pitcher is the winning pitcher. You can see the main definition right here that the winning pitcher is the pitcher whose team assumes the lead while that pitcher is in the game or during the inning on offense in which that pitcher was removed from the game and does not relinquish that lead. So the first thing which is probably obvious is that in order to be the winning pitcher you must be on the team that won the game and likewise the losing pitcher will be on the team that lost the game. The second thing to note is that the pitcher will remain that team's pitcher until another player, the pitcher actually throws a pitch. So this might seem obvious but it is important to note if there is a game in which the pitcher is pinch hit for and it is in that half inning that he is pinch hit for that his team takes the lead. So he is still considered the pitcher for those runs. The second stipulation is that the starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings to be credited with the win. So the starting pitcher is the first pitcher for each team in that game. All other pitchers after the starting pitcher or the starter are called relief pitchers. For relief pitchers there is no minimum amount that they are required to pitch to pick up the win. If the game is called after five innings for something like rain then the starter is only required to have pitched four innings in order for him to earn the win. Now as I said there is no minimum amount of matters that the relief pitcher has to face to earn the win but the final part of the rule does present one stipulation that they must fulfill and that is that the official score does not have to credit a relief pitcher with a win if their appearance in the game was brief and ineffective and there was a pitcher after him who was more effective. What does that mean? Let's take a look at an example here. Let's say that the pitcher comes in to replace a starter and there are two outs in the inning and the game is still tied zero to zero. Nobody is on base. So we will call this reliever A and reliever A gives up five hits and three runs score before getting that one out to end the inning that he needed. So then in the next half inning reliever A is pinch hit four and in that same half inning his team scores four runs to take the lead. So technically reliever A is in line to get the win but if the pitcher that replaces reliever A will call him reliever B goes on to pitch four more innings does not give up another run for the rest of the game and the team wins four to three. The rules say that even though the team gained the lead with reliever A in the game it was actually reliever B who should get the win because reliever A's outing was brief and it was not very effective but then again it's important to note that you will rarely ever see this happen and generally the pitcher who is credited with the win is the guy who was in the game when his team took the lead for the final five.