The Oklahoma City Comets outlasted the Sugar Land Space Cowboys 8-6 on Wednesday, going two games up on Sugar Land in the second half of Pacific Coast League standings, with 10 games left to play. Jackson Ferris continued his strong recent run by pitching the final six innings in relief, with seven strikeouts.
More importantly, for my interests, Ferris was credited with a SIX-INNING SAVE.
The game was very wild early. Gavin Stone started, his first game in two weeks, starting a new rehab assignment
while on the 60-day injured list. He needed 32 pitches to record only two outs, both by strikeouts, with two walks and two hits, one of the hits a three-run home run.
Chris Campos relieved Stone and stranded the runner to end the first inning, then allowed a solo home run of his own in the second inning. In all, Campos struck out three with the one run allowed in 1 1/3 innings.
Oklahoma City tied things with three runs in the bottom of the first inning, then took the lead in the bottom of the second inning with three more runs, and never relinquished it. Campos was the pitcher of record when the Comets grabbed the lead, putting him in position to earn the win.
Official baseball rules govern both Major League Baseball and minor league affiliates, and Rule 9.17(c) covers this sort of situation, and grants the official scorer discretion when the starter doesn’t last five innings:
The Official Scorer shall not credit as the winning pitcher a relief pitcher who is ineffective in a brief appearance, when at least one succeeding relief pitcher pitches effectively in helping his team maintain its lead. In such a case, the Official Scorer shall credit as the winning pitcher the succeeding relief pitcher who was most effective, in the judgment of the Official Scorer.
Oklahoma City play-by-play broadcaster Alex Freedman passed along the official scorer at the ballpark said he could not in good conscience say the outing by Campos was both ineffective and brief.
After rehabbers Edwin Díaz and Kris Bubic got three outs in the third inning, it was Ferris the rest of the way. He allowed only a run on two hits in his six innings, with seven strikeouts and only two walks for his first professional save.
That’s five straight stellar outings by Ferris, with a minuscule 1.27 ERA with 35 strikeouts and 10 walks in 28 1/3 innings, rescuing a season by the 22-year-old that featured a 7.15 ERA with 71 strikeouts and 43 walks through his first 18 outings and 73 innings. He had a strikeout-minus-walk rate of 8.1 percent through August 8, improved to 22.3 percent over the last five Ferris outings.
History
Since saves became an official major league statistic in 1969, only twice has someone pitched at least six innings while recording a save, both by Texas Rangers. Horacio Piña pitched six scoreless innings in a save against the California Angels on April 23, 1972, and Joaquin Benoit pitched seven innings, allowing just one run to finish out a 7-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on September 3, 2002.
In that 2002 game, Texas starter Aaron Myette was ejected after only one batter, and Todd Van Poppel followed with two scoreless innings, and by then the Rangers led 4-0, so Van Poppel got the win. It was nearly a combined no-hitter, but Jerry Hairston Jr. tripled to open the ninth inning off the rookie Benoit, and scored Baltimore’s only run.
“I really didn’t think about it. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen, whatever,” Benoit said of the near no-hitter, per Associated Press.
