E.K. NATION

For a long while, I thought the "hold" statistic was bogus, just as bogus as the save statistic. It took me a while to understand that the hold could be used to determine a set-up man's effectiveness much better than could a simple comparison of saves to blown saves.

For example, a set-up man rarely is in the game when it ends, which is one requirement for a save. Naturally, he's rarely supposed to be in the game when it ends. So the opportunities for actual saves recorded by him are few. But when the set-up man enters the game in a save situation, he is now suddenly on the line. If he blows the lead, he is charged with a blown save, even though he was never intended to be in the game to close it out. So a set-up man might not have any saves in a season but he may have, say, ten blown saves. An 0-for-10 mark in save situations doesn't look good at all, but it's not at all representative of the work he did.

A "hold" lets us know that he was in the game for a save situation, didn't give up the lead, and left with his team still leading. Now, the set-up man might get 50 holds and ten blown saves. A 5-for-60 mark certainly looks much better.

But now I see the box score from last night's Giants/Padres game. Two Giants pitchers, Jim Brower and Jason Christiansen, earned "holds." Funny thing is, neither one of them recorded a single out. With a three-run lead to start the ninth inning, Brower entered the game and allowed a double and a walk and then was removed, and Christiansen allowed a run-scoring single and was removed. Christiansen got a hold for in effect doing nothing but giving up a run, and Brower got a hold even though he was not in the game long enough to face the batter who would have represented the tying run.

Shouldn't a pitcher record at least one out before getting credit for a hold? Neither Brower nor Christiansen did much holding of anything last night.

In any event, isn't Jason Schmidt, after eight innings of work, still better than a fresh Brower or Christiansen? Those two weren't even good enough to prevent the suddenly terrifi-horriblendous Matt Herges from having to pitch. Were it not for the generosity of Jay Payton to hit into a game-ending double play with the bases loaded, we here at E.K. Nation would be once again bemoaning another blown Schmidt victory and another game lost in the standings in a crucial N.L. West game.