Relief pitcher
Baseball or softball pitcher that enters a game to pitch after a starting pitcher
Summary
In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher or another relief pitcher has been removed from the game because of fatigue, injury, ineffectiveness, ejection, high pitch count, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather delays or pinch hitter substitutions. Relief pitchers are further divided informally into various roles, such as closers, setup men, middle relief pitchers, left/right-handed specialists, and long relievers. Whereas starting pitchers usually throw so many pitches in a single game that they must rest several days before pitching in another, relief pitchers are expected to be more flexible and typically pitch in more games with a shorter time period between pitching appearances but with fewer innings pitched per appearance. A team's staff of relievers is normally referred to metonymically as a team's bullpen, which refers to the area where the relievers sit during games, and where they warm up prior to entering the game.
Originally created by Ratwod
2/18/2004, 2:18:56 AM
Modified
5/19/2026, 12:54:57 AM
Recent revisions
Rescued 1 archive link. [[User:GreenC/WaybackMedic_2.5|Wayback Medic 2.5]] per [[WP:URLREQ#fivethirtyeight.com]]
Adjective misused as preposition corrected.
The picture was taken in 2007, when they were still the Indians and the ballpark was still Jacobs Field.
Rescued 1 archive link; Move 1 url. [[User:GreenC/WaybackMedic_2.5|Wayback Medic 2.5]] per [[WP:URLREQ#m.mlb.com]]
the two players pictured did not play for the Guardians so the caption is accurate
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/* Awards given to relievers */
Reverted [[WP:AGF|good faith]] edits by [[Special:Contributions/Mrfoogles|Mrfoogles]] ([[User talk:Mrfoogles|talk]]): Feel free to restore with ref, im not aware of this stat
Add info
Moving [[:Category:Baseball pitching]] to [[:Category:Pitching (baseball)]] per [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 October 30#Category:Baseball pitching]]
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