In order to understand the role of the setup pitcher, it’s helpful to get a handle on the different types of pitchers a baseball team might use during the course of a game. These include:

• Starting pitcher – the pitcher who pitches from the beginning of the game; traditionally, the goal has been for a starting pitcher to throw all 9 innings, but changes in pitcher use patterns during the 21st century have made 6-7 a more common hallmark for starter durability.
• Long reliever – this pitcher comes in to relieve when the starter leaves early in the game; a long reliever will often pitch two or more innings, and a manager may need to call on multiple long relievers in one contest if the score gets out of hand or if the starter leaves after just an inning or two.
• Mop-up reliever – this pitcher comes in late in a game to finish up when the score is lopsided in either direction; the traditional connotation, though, has been that this pitcher comes in to clean up, or “mop” up, after his team has made a mess of the game.
• Closer – this is the lockdown ace of the relief corps, the pitcher most often charged with protecting a small lead in the late innings; in the 21st century, most closers only work the ninth inning of one- or two-run games, but some are used for longer stretches or in other situations.
• Setup reliever – the setup man is usually another sure thing in the manager’s mind, and it’s his job to bridge the gap between a starter or long reliever and the closer; often, a setup man will work just eighth inning, though some will work a couple of innings leading up to the closer.

So, as you can see from those descriptions, a setup reliever literally sets up the end of the game for the closer to come in and work his magic.

Setup men don’t always get the glory that closers do, but they are just as indispensable to their teams. And many a great setup man has “graduated” to the closer role when the incumbent moves on or melts down.

Did you know? Hall of Fame reliever Mariano Rivera was one of the greatest setup men of all-time before he became the New York Yankees’ closer. Sort of like the all-mound version of Babe Ruth!

(You might also be intersted in our look at the team with the most wins in National League history.)

Throughout nearly their entire history, these two storied franchises have been bitter rivals, engendering generations of diehard fans on both sides of the aisle.

The Yankees began American League play as the New York Highlanders in 1903, adopting the nickname “Yankees” in 1913. Nearly seven years later, in December of 1919, the Yanks bought Babe Ruth from the Red Sox, a deal that would change the course of baseball history.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox began A.L. life as the Boston Americans in 1901, becoming the Red Sox in 1908. They won five World Series between 1903 and 1918, the year before they sold Ruth to their rivals. Infamously, they wouldn’t win again until 2004 as the so-called “Curse of the Bambino” led them to the brink of glory only to dash their dreams again and again … and again.

Overall, the Yankees have won 40 American League pennants and 27 World Series championships, while the Sawx have claimed 14 American League flags and 9 world titles.

Besides the Sultan of Swat, other notable men who have played for both the Yankees and Red Sox include (amont others):

• Rickey Henderson
• Elston Howard
• Wade Boggs
• Johnny Damon
• Ben Chapman
• Mike Stanley
• Don Baylor
• Jacoby Ellsbury
• Everett Scott
• George Scott

(You might also be intersted in our look at the team with the most wins in American League history.)

These days, the Giants and Dodgers are bitter rivals in the National League West division, carrying on a tradition that saw them slug it out for N.L. pennants during the first 70+ years of their existence.

The Giants began life in New York in 1883, playing through 1884 without a team nickname. They became the New York Giants for the 1885 season and never looked back.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, sprang to life in Brooklyn for the 1884 season, again unnamed. They became the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in 1889 and 1890, went nameless again from 1891 through 1894, then spent 1895 through 1898 as simply the “Grooms.” From 1899 through 1910, they were the Superbas, with “Dodgers” first showing up from 1911 through 1915. After playing as the Robins from 1916 through 1931, the Brooklyn team became the Dodgers for good in 1932.

Before the 1958 season, the Giants and Dodgers both left New York to land in their present cities.

Along the way to all those regular-season wins, the Giants have won 23 National League pennants and 8 World Series.

The Dodgers have also captured 25 National League pennants, winning 7 World Series.

Did you know? Hall of Famer John McGraw has the most wins as Giants manager, leading the New York squad to a 2583-1790 record from 1902 through 1932.

Through most of baseball history, teams have used LRPs on a sporadic basis, calling on them only when the need arises. That typically happens when a starter is chased early in a game. In that case, a manager may bring in a reliever to work multiple innings to try and keep the game in hand so he can transition to the backend of his bullpen — the setup relievers and closer.

In the 2020s, the LRP became more commonplace as teams like the Tampa Bay Rays began experimenting with “openers” and so-called “bullpen games,” which are designed from the beginning to feature several pitchers who each hurl multiple innings.

But there have been some relievers, even in earlier times, who regularly worked several innings per appearance. Some of these guys even served as their team’s closers while racking up ponderous innings totals.

Probably the best example of a long relief pitcher who also functioned as a closer was Mike Marshall, who threw a record 208.1 innings over 83 appearances for the 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers. He also led the team with 21 saves, a combined performance that netted him the National League Cy Young Award.

Or, rather, there’s a baby to the madness.

According to American Songwriter, Amy Tobey was game-time music for the Red Sox back in 1997. One day, she decided to celebrate a friend and her new baby with a special song.

Yep, you guessed it — the friend had named her new daughter “Caroline,” so Tobey saw only one real choice for which song to play. So she blared “Sweet Caroline” all through Fenway Park in the eighth inning of the Sawx game.

It was a mild hit, with fans sining the catchy tune, and the Red Sox wheeled it out again here and ther for the next five years. But in 2002, Charles Steinberg took up the mantle of main communications/PR dude for the team, and he installed “Sweet Caroline” as an eighth-inning staple.

Five years after that, in 2007, Steinberg met Caroline Kennedy and also learned that she had been Diamond’s inspiration for the song. The images of her as a child with her horse watching her slain father, President John F. Kennedy, pass by in his funeral procession was too much for Diamond to not write about.

In the years since, Diamond has visited Fenway and even led the crowd in singing their new(ish) anthem.

Did you know? Nomar Garciaparra, the great Red Sox shortstop, won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 1997, the same season “Sweet Caroline” debuted at Fenway Park.

Both Crawford and Cobb had the one attribute that is absolutely required to rack up lots of triples on a consistent basis: blazing speed.

In addition to all their triples, Crawford stole 367 bases, while Cobb recorded 897 steals.

Take a look at the top 20 leaders in career triples, and you’ll see much of the same:

Other than Waner and Musial, every other player on this list stole at least 200 bases during his career. Musial didn’t even crack 80, but you can’t put Stan the Man in the same sort of boxes reserved for mere mortals.

You might also notice that Musial and Waner share something else in common — they’re the only two on this list to play as late as the 1940s. Heck, some of the others barely made it out of the 19th century as active players!

These guys were the epitome of the Deadball Era, when runs were at a great premium before Babe Ruth revolutionized the power game in the 1920s. Even more so than with the list of career doubles leaders, this rundown of the greatest triples hitters ever gives us a glimpse into a completely different era of the game.

You have to scroll all the way down to number 27, where Roberto Clemente shows up with 166 triples, to find a player who was still on the diamond in the 1970s. Move that bar to the 2000s, and we fall to Steve Finley, tied for 94th with 124 triples.

So, will we ever see another hitter break the top 100 again?

“Ever” is a long time, but as of the end of 2023, the active career leader is Charlie Blackmon, who ended the season at age 37 with 63 triples. Suffice it to say that the next 300-triple man is probably not yet even a twinkle in anyone’s eye.

While not as celebrated as home runs, doubles are one of baseball’s most valuable types of hits. And hitting doubles is a skill that goes beyond just tying into the ball with all your might.

Deadball Supremacy

Speaker played from 1907 through 1928, with the majority of those years before Babe Ruth killed the so-called Deadball Era with his home run exploits for the New York Yankees in the 1920s.

Before Ruth made everyone dig the long ball, home runs were hard to come by. To wit, Speaker himself led the American League with 10 homers in 1912 for the Boston Red Sox. By the time he hit a career-high 17 for the Cleveland Indians in 1923, though, that total was only good enough to tie him for fourth place in the A.L. with Joe Hauser of the Philadelphia Athletics.

That same season, Speaker led all of baseball with 59 doubles, a total which still ranks tied for seventh on the single-season list.

Speaker had the perfect blend of hitting skills for tagging doubles on a consistent basis. He had enough power to lead the league in home runs (at least before The Bambino came along!), but he also flashed plenty of speed on the basepaths. In fact, Speaker topped out at 22 triples in 1913 and 52 stolen bases in 1912.

The Land of Power and Speed

Speaker’s blend of power and speed is the blueprint for a doubles machine, but there have been players who excelled at just one of those aspects of the game and still collected plenty of doubles.

Albert Pujols, for example, slugged 703 home runs in his career but was about as fast on the bases as a bullpen cart with no battery. But all that power helped Prince Albert collect 686 doubles despite his lack of speed.

On the other hand, you won’t find any pure speedsters on the list of the top doubles men of all-time unless they also packed a punch with their swing. Cobb himself is the exemplar for that type of doubles hitter, of course, but a more modern example is Craig Biggio.

The Houston Astros legend and Cooperstown denizen stole 414 bases in his career, but he also banged 291 long balls. Is it any wonder he was able to crank out 668 doubles among his 3060 hits?

Reserved for Legends

Speaking of Cooperstown, the list of career leaders in doubles is no place for scrubs. Among the all-time top 20, only Rose, Pujols, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Cabrera, Barry Bonds, Luis Gonzalez, and Todd Helton are not in the Hall of Fame.

Rose and Bonds, of course, have their own troubles with the Cooperstown electorate that have nothing to do with their numbers.

Pujols, Beltre, Cabrera, and Helton will all end up with plaques.

That leaves only Gonzalez as a non-Hall of Famer on merit alone, and he’s not that far off if you look at his record.

Here is the full top-20 list of players with the most doubles in Major League Baseball history:

Here is the full story.

Up to Two Strikes

When a hitter is at the plate with fewer than two strikes, any foul ball that is not caught by the opposing team for an out results in a strike agains the batter. So, for any of the following ball-strike counts, a non-out foul ball on the subsequent pitch will result in an extra strike on the batter:

• 0-0
• 0-1
• 1-0
• 1-1
• 2-0
• 2-1
• 3-0
• 3-1

Once the batter has two strikes, such as a full count of three balls and two strikes (3-2), every subsequent uncaught foul ball leaves the count unchanged.

The Bunt Exception

The exception to the two-strike rule of foul balls is when a batter fouls off a ball with two strikes while attempting to bunt. In that case, the foul ball does indeed count as strike three, and the batter is out. So if the batter has fouled off two other pitches for strikes before committing a bunt-foul out, then he will have three total fouls charged as strikes against him.

The Other Exception

A foul tip, in which the batter makes incidental contact with a pitch but the catcher receives the ball into his glove without coming out of his crouch, is considered a strike. That’s true in all cases, including when there are already two strikes, so a batter may strike out on a foul tip. As with the bunting situation above, the batter could conceivably record three foul ball strikes if the last one is a foul tip.

Did you know? The longest at-bat in the history of Major League Baseball was recorded by Brandon Belt of the San Francisco Giants against Jaime Barria of the Los Angeles Angels on April 22, 2018, at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. In the top of the first inning, Belt came to bat after Joe Panik led off with a single to right field. Belt stayed in the batter’s box for 21 grueling pitches, running the count to 3-2 and fouling off an amazing 16 pitches before finally lining out to left field.

The most common type of double play is the 6-4-3 DP, which happens when a batter hits the ball on the ground between second and third base with a runner on first. In that case, the shortstop fields the grounder and throws to second base to force out the lead runner, who is coming from first. Then the second baseman throws the ball to first to force out the batter.

A similar play occurs when the third baseman makes the initial grab and throws to second (a 5-4-3 double play). If there are runners on both first and second, a double play can start with a forceout at third. Likewise, if the bases are loaded, a double play might start with a forceout at home plate.

In any case, a GIDP is one of the worst outcomes for a batter as it not only results in two outs, but it also removes a base runner who was already in play. Talk about a rally killer!

Oftentimes, fast runners can beat out the back end of a double play at first base, but slower runners who hit an infield grounder are usually toast.

As proof of this, the single-season leader in GIDP is Boston Red Sox slugger and Hall of Famer Jim Rice, who grounded into 36 DPs in 1984. He followed that up with 35 GIDPs in 100 fewer plate appearances in 1985. Not surprisingly, Rice had only 58 stolen bases in his career and was caught 34 times.

Rice finished his career with 315 GIDP, tied with Eddie Murray for eighth place on the all-time list. The top spot belongs to Albert Pujols, with 426 GIDPs.

Here is the complete list of the 10 batters with the most GIDPs in their careers:

• Albert Pujols – 426 GIDP
• Miguel Cabrera – 364 GIDP
• Cal Ripken, Jr. – 350 GIDP
• Ivan Rodriguez – 337 GIDP
• Hank Aaron – 328 GIDP
• Carl Yastrzemski – 323 GIDP
• Dave Winfield – 319 GIDP
• Eddie Murray – 315 GIDP
• Jim Rice – 315 GIDP
• Julio Franco – 312 GIDP

Something you might notice about this list is just how accomplished the players are. Among the top 10, seven are in the Hall of Fame as of 2023, two more — Pujols and Cabrera — will be in Cooperstown as soon as they’re eligible, and Franco had a long and accomplished career.

So, although a GIDP is a negative thing for a batter, only the very best stick around long enough to land on this “bad” list.

R – Runs

The blocks labeled by inning numbers on the scoreboard keep track of the runs each team scores in their half of each inning. So, if the visiting team scores two runs in the top of the first inning, that block on the scoreboard shows a “2,” as in the image above.

The “R” column keeps track of the total runs scored by each team during the course of the game.

In the example above, the visitors scored two runs in the top of the first, none in the second, and one in the top of the third, for a total of three runs.

Meanwhile, the home team didn’t score in the first but did score one run in the bottom of the second inning. So, heading to the bottom of the third, the “R” column on the right-hand side shows a cumulative score of 3-1 in favor of the visitors.

H – Hits

Each hit that a team collects during the course of a baseball game is reflected in the “H” column of the scoreboard as the game progresses. Unlike runs, hit tallies are not shown for each inning, but just for the overall game. So, in the example above, the visiting team has collected five hits and the home team has collected two hits as the game heads to the bottom of the third inning.

E- Errors

As with hits, the baseball scoreboard shows the total number of errors that a team has committed as the game progresses, this time in the “E” column at the far right-hand side. In the example above, the home team has committed one error, while the visitors have committed none, through the top of the third inning.

Errors are the only defensive metric shown on the scoreboard, and they’re the only negative shown, too. That one error shown in the example above occurred while the visiting team was batting and helped them out, but it’s recorded — and shown — against the home team.

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Did You Know? The record for the most errors in a game by a single player is held by Andy Leonard, who committed 9 gaffes in a game for the Boston Reds in 1876.