Pitching Decisions

Question
I was watching the Yankees-Cubs game last night. The Yankees pitcher, Andy Pettitte was removed from the game before completing the 2nd inning. He was responsible for 6 runs. The Yankees came back in the game, scoring a total of 7 runs and lost the game 8-7. Pettitte was given the loss. If a pitcher is taken out of a game after allowing any amount of runs, and his team manages to score AT LEAST the same amount of runs, isn't it correct that the pitcher gets a no decision? That's what I understood the rule to be. Please correct me if I'm mistaken. Thank you.

Answer
Jeff,

Pettite did get the loss in the game and it was the proper call.  Basically, in order to be the losing pitcher, you have to be in the game when your team gets behind and never ties or gets ahead again.  The line score in the game was something like this (not exact because it is from memory:

Yankees  0 0 0 1 0 1 1 2 2
Cubs     3 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 0

As you can see, the Yankees fell behind and never tied the game or gained the lead.  If Pettite had only given up one run in the first and been pulled, he would have still got the loss if the same line resulted.

The rule on the win is almost the same except there are a couple qualifications.  Whichever pitcher is in the game when their team takes a lead they don't relinquish gets the win.  However, the starting pitcher must pitch five innings in order to get the win.  And the official scorer can give the win to the most effective relief pitcher (whoever in his judgement most earned the win).  Usually they give it to whoever was in the game when their team took the lead, but not always.

Hope this helps!

Brian