Reliever is brought in with 2 outs, bases loaded, his team up by one run, and it's a save situation.

Batter hits a routine groundball to F2 who airmails it to first. Two runs score on the error. The reliever's team never regains the lead.

Does that reliever get charged with a blown save, even though the runs were unearned?

This is an interesting question, so I did some research. And here is what I found...

from http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Save

"Blown Save
A blown save (abbreviated BS) is charged to a pitcher who enters a game in a save situation but allows the tying run to score. Blown saves were introduced in 1988, but are not an officially recognized statistic although many sources keep track of them. Once a pitcher blows a save, he is no longer eligible to earn a save in that game (since the lead that he was trying to "save" has disappeared) although he can earn a win if his team regains the lead."

What I've done for our team in the past is credit the relief pitcher with the inning or 1/3 of an inning(if/when an out is finally recorded), but not the 2 runs that scored, since those runners belong to pitcher that started the inning. He wouldn't get the Blown Save either because the new pitcher got the batter to hit a ground ball in the infield which is what relievers are typically asked to do.

The pitcher can't play all of the positions in the infield (even though some would like to).

I checked with a friend who was an official MLB scorer and he confirmed that no Blown Save would be awarded due to the error.

Thanks, SPM -- glad you found it interesting.

To follow up -- here's a quote from Wikipedia ... which I'll acknowledge up front is not to be considered a valid source.

"... Note that if the tying run was scored by a runner who was already on base when the new pitcher entered the game, that new pitcher will be charged with a blown save even though the run will not be charged to the new pitcher, but rather to the pitcher who allowed that runner to reach base."

I'd be interested to see if others could either validate or refute this based on a more reliable source.

1. I take it that when we discuss "save situations" in this context, we are not considering the possibility of a 3-inning save? Because that would pick up all the set-up guys who blow leads.

2. Can you have more than one blown save assessed to the same team in the same game? Example: Blown save in the 9th leads to extra innings. Visiting team scores in top of an extra inning, new reliever gives it up in the bottom half. Two blown saves there?

Or, how about this one?

P enters at the start of the bottom of the 9th with a 1-run lead. He walks 2 guys and is lifted.

New P comes in and gives up a HR, game over.

Do you charge one, or two, blown saves? If one, which pitcher gets hung with it?

Midlo,

Interesting scenarios you raise ... and unfortunately probably not definitively answerable, because MLB doesn't officially recognize this stat -- so it's not officially defined in the rule book.

So in these more offbeat scenarios, people can have opinions -- but until it gets written into the ruleboook, for the most part they will remain only that -- opinions.

But let me give these a try from my own perspective:

2. "...more than one blown save... ": That one I feel pretty confident on -- that it's a YES. I'm a Texas Ranger fan, and believe me, that's a very ordinary occurence. I think I've seen it listed that way in box scores (for what that's worth).

"P enters at the start ..." -- What's interesting here is that when the first guy enters, it's definitely a SAVE situation. But when he leaves he's no longer eligible for a save, since he doesn't pitch at least 1/3 of an inning. So does that then mean he can't be credited with a BLOWN SAVE? I don't think so. But in your scenario, since he wasn't pitching at the time the winning run scored (even though they were his runners), I believe he DOES NOT get a blown save. But he would get the LOSS.

The following pitcher (who gave up the homer) would get a BLOWN SAVE -- which is a tough one for him, since they weren't all his runners.

Again -- these are just my opinions. Whaddya think?

And just FYI (as you probably know) it IS possible for a pitcher to get a BLOWN SAVE and a WIN in the same game.