How to be a Relief Pitcher

Video Transcript

Now, we're going to take a look at a different type of pitcher. Although he doesn't start the game, he's no less important. We're going to look at the relief pitcher. The various categories of relief pitcher include short relief, middle relief, and long relief. They come in at various points in the game. The closer is also a type of relief pitcher and we'll talk about him more in depth in just a second. The relief pitcher will begin the game in the bullpen, which is generally situated in the outfield where he watches the game and waits for the call from the dugout and the pitching coach that he's going to have to come into the game. Relief pitchers can be brought in strategically, to face certain batters. Sometimes you'll bring a left-handed relief pitcher in to face a specific type of batter. Sometimes you'll want to bring a righty in. Sometimes, the relief pitcher is brought into the game because the starting pitcher is struggling or the starting pitcher has been hurt or the starting pitcher is getting tired. That happens very often. Some baseball coaches have specific plans where they are going to ask their starting pitcher to go to the 6th inning and then they're going to bring in a relief pitcher in the 6th. They'll bring in a relief pitcher in the 7th, another in the 8th called the set up man, and then the closer will come in the 9th. The set up man generally comes into the game right before the closer. He needs to get anywhere from 3 to 6 outs. Generally, a relief pitcher doesn't go more than two innings except on rare occasions when you'll see them go 3 or 4 innings. For the most part, a relief pitcher is expected to come into the game for just a couple of innings and get a couple of outs and hold the game in place either to maintain a lead or not allow any more runs to score. Sometimes, he's brought in to stop the bleeding. The relief pitcher is very important because a lot of times he has to come in and hold. He does have the opportunity to come in and warm up. Oftentimes they'll do that in a section that's in front of the bullpen bench. There will be a bullpen catcher and a bullpen coach out there warming that relief pitcher up and preparing them to go into the game. However, they usually don't have a long time to warm up so they have to be able to hop off the bench, run onto the mound and record outs sometimes in the most serious situations in a baseball game. So, just because the relief pitcher doesn't start doesn't mean he's not important.

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