Archaic baseball scoring rules
By Tomight Justin Verlander gave up five runs in the first, then pitched shutout ball until the ninth, while Detroit came back to tie it up. Then Fernando Rodney got the last three outs before the Tigers won on a walk-off homer in the bottom of the inning.
How much sense does it make in this situation for Rodney to get credit for the win? Practically none, but baseball is still stuck with scoring rules that were devised when starting pitchers finished 90% of their starts.
I’m not plugged into the sabermetrics scene, so I don’t know how much discussion there’s been about changing the rules. And of course changing them would have some real costs in terms of record-book continuity. But the present scoring rules for wins (and to a lesser extent saves) seem quite arbitrary, given the nature of the modern game.