{"id":236,"date":"2025-07-01T15:05:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T15:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/glossary\/?p=236"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T15:48:18","slug":"hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/glossary\/hold\/","title":{"rendered":"Hold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-nbsp-what-is-a-hold\">&nbsp;What is a Hold?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A hold is an unofficial statistic awarded to a reliever who protects a lead without closing the game. To be eligible for a hold, the pitcher must enter in a save situation, which means:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches for at least one inning <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He enters the game, regardless of the score, with the potential tying run either on base, at bat, or on deck<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Or he pitches at least three innings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike a save, where the pitcher enters in one of those circumstances and finishes the game, a hold is awarded to a reliever who pitches in a save situation and then turns the game over to another reliever. Therefore, rather than &#8220;saving&#8221; the win, they merely &#8220;hold&#8221; it and pass it onto the next pitcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-is-hold-used-in-baseball\">How is Hold used in baseball?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Holds are an unofficial statistic that measures middle reliever performance, the same way a save measures performance for closers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the hold, middle relievers could be charged with a blown save, if they surrendered a lead in a save situation, but there was no corresponding positive stat for when they did their job. Holds were created to fill that gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-calculate-holds\">How to calculate Holds?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Holds are a counting stat, so a pitcher simply gets one if they meet the requirements. As a reminder, the pitcher must enter in a save situation, meaning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches for at least one inning <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He enters the game, regardless of the score, with the potential tying run either on base, at bat, or on deck<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Or he pitches at least three innings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>He must then hold the lead and turn it over to another pitcher to get credit for the Hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-hold-examples\">Hold Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch Tyler Matzek convert one of the highest leverage holds in recent memory, entering a two-run game with runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tyler Matzek SILENCES the Dodgers&#039; bats with three straight strikeouts to hold the lead!\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V200xmqXb6E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-popular-or-interesting-lt-glossary-term-gt-stats\">Popular or Interesting &lt;Glossary Term&gt; Stats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As holds are not an official stat, there is no official holds leaderboard. However, they are searchable in Stathead. Here is a list of the <a href=\"https:\/\/stathead.com\/tiny\/QJqVI\">career leaders in holds<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;What is a Hold? A hold is an unofficial statistic awarded to a reliever who protects a lead without closing the game. To be eligible for a hold, the pitcher must enter in a save situation, which means: Unlike a save, where the pitcher enters in one of those circumstances and finishes the game, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.7.1 (Yoast SEO v25.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hold: Baseball-Reference.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A hold is an unofficial statistic awarded to a reliever who protects a lead without closing the game.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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