In baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 or softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

, a starting pitcher (also referred to as the starter) is the pitcher

Pitcher

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...

 who delivers the first pitch to the first batter of a game. A pitcher who enters the game after the first pitch of the game is a relief pitcher

Relief pitcher

A relief pitcher or reliever is a baseball or softball pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed due to injury, ineffectiveness, fatigue, ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as being substituted by a pinch hitter...

.

A starting pitcher in professional baseball usually rests three or four days after pitching a game, before pitching another. Therefore, most professional baseball teams have four or five starting pitchers on their rosters. These pitchers, and the sequence in which they pitch, is known as the rotation. In modern baseball, a five-man rotation is most common.

Workload

Under ideal circumstances, a manager of a baseball team would prefer a starting pitcher to pitch as many innings as possible in a game. Most regular starting pitchers pitch for at least five innings on a regular basis, and if a pitcher is unable to do so, there is a high probability that he will, in the future, be relegated to duty in the bullpen

Bullpen

In baseball, the bullpen is the area where relief pitchers warm-up before entering a game. Depending on the ballpark, it may be situated in foul territory along the baselines or just beyond the outfield fence. Also, a team's roster of relief pitchers is metonymically referred to as "the bullpen"...

. In modern baseball, a starting pitcher is rarely expected to pitch for more than seven or eight innings, at which point, responsibility for the game is passed to relief pitchers, including specialist pitchers such as set-up pitchers and closers

Closer (baseball)

In baseball, a closing pitcher, more frequently referred to as a closer , is a relief pitcher who specializes in closing out games, i.e., getting the final outs in a close game. Closers often appear when the score is close, and the role is often assigned to a team's best reliever. A small number of...

.

Often, a starting pitcher is subject to a pitch count

Pitch count

In baseball statistics, pitch count is the number of pitches thrown by a pitcher in a game.Pitch counts are especially a concern for young pitchers, pitchers recovering from injury, or pitchers who have a history of injuries. The pitcher wants to keep the pitch count low because of his stamina...

, meaning the manager will remove him from the game once he has thrown a specific number of pitches. The most common pitch count for a modern pitcher is in the neighborhood of 100, and it is now rare for a starting pitcher to throw more than 125 pitches in a game. Pitch counts are especially common for starting pitchers who are recovering from injury

Injury

-By cause:*Traumatic injury, a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident*Other injuries from external physical causes, such as radiation injury, burn injury or frostbite*Injury from infection...

. In the early decades of baseball, it was not uncommon for a starting pitcher to pitch three hundred innings or more, over the course of a season. In addition, there are accounts of starting pitchers pitching on consecutive days, or even in both games of a doubleheader

Doubleheader (baseball)

A doubleheader is a set of two baseball games played between the same two teams on the same day in front of the same crowd. In addition, the term is often used unofficially to refer to a pair of games played by a team in a single day, but in front of different crowds and not in immediate...

. It is believed that these feats were only possible because pitchers in the early years of the game, unlike modern starters, rarely threw the ball with maximum effort.

A starting pitcher who can be counted on to consistently throw many innings is known as a workhorse. A good example of a modern day workhorse pitcher is Roy Halladay

Roy Halladay

Harry Leroy "Roy" Halladay III , nicknamed "Doc", is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies...

, who has a history of throwing complete games.

Statistics

A starting pitcher must complete five innings of work in order to qualify for a "win" in a game he starts. Under NCAA baseball rules, which govern intercollegiate baseball, a starting pitcher who pitches fewer than five innings can still earn a win if he pitches for a certain amount of time that is determined before the start of the game. It is possible to be credited with a loss despite pitching fewer than five innings. A starter who works six or more innings while giving up three or fewer runs is said to have achieved a "quality start

Quality start

In baseball, a quality start is a statistic for a starting pitcher defined as a game in which the pitcher completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs....

". A starter that finishes the game without having to be relieved by the bullpen is said to have thrown a "complete game". The pitcher that throws a complete game is almost always in a position for a win.

Pitch selection

Starting pitchers usually have at least three effective pitches to choose from — a fastball

Fastball

The fastball is the most common type of pitch in baseball. Some "power pitchers," such as Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, have thrown it at speeds of 95–106 mph and up to 108.1 mph , relying purely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit...

; a breaking pitch, such as a curveball

Curveball

The curveball is a type of pitch in baseball thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball causing it to dive in a downward path as it approaches the plate. Its close relatives are the slider and the slurve. The "curve" of the ball varies from pitcher to...

, screwball

Screwball

A screwball , is a baseball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action....

, cut fastball, sinker or slider

Slider

In baseball, a slider is a pitch that breaks laterally and down, with a speed between that of a curveball and that of a fastball....

; and a change-up

Changeup

A changeup is a type of pitch in baseball. Other names include change-of-pace, Bugs Bunny change-up, the dreaded equalizer, and simply change. The changeup is sometimes called an off-speed pitch, although that term can also be used simply to mean any pitch that is slower than a fastball...

.

See also

• Setup man
• Middle reliever
• Closing pitcher
• Left-handed specialist
  Left-handed specialist
  In baseball, a left-handed specialist is a left-handed relief pitcher who specializes in pitching to left-handed batters, or to switch-hitters who bat poorly right-handed...
  
  
• Long reliever
  Long reliever
  A Long reliever is a type of relief pitcher in baseball.Long relievers traditionally enter early in a game when the starting pitcher cannot continue, whether due to ineffective pitching, lack of endurance, rain delays, injury, or ejection...
  
  
• List of World Series starting pitchers