Oakland reliever earns 1st career win via obscure rule

By NOAH TRISTER
AP Baseball Writer

BALTIMORE (AP) — Chad Smith’s first major league win came courtesy of a rarely applied official scoring rule. The Oakland reliever pitched the final two innings of the Athletics’ 8-4 victory over Baltimore on Wednesday night. He held the Orioles scoreless and allowed only one hit. He entered in the bottom of the eighth, after the A’s had scored three runs in the top of the inning to take a 7-4 advantage. Jeurys Familia was in the game when Oakland took the lead for good. He could have been the pitcher of record. But the official scorer chose not to give Familia the win because he was deemed to have had a brief, ineffective outing.