Well stated H20. I can’t remember the last time I saw the ‘least or more effective’ deal come into play in MLB. It was common long ago, as I’ll bet you know, for fans and players to have to wait, (on occasion,) a bit following a game’s ending for the OS to make a decision on the Winning pitcher.
In late September 2013, during the last week or so of Mariano Rivera’s career, there was a game in which a Yankee reliever gave up 3 or 4 runs in the 8th (his only inning of work) to cough up the lead, but the Yankees scored a couple to retake the lead, and Mariano pitched a scoreless ninth. Everybody assumed that Maruliano had added to his career saves recird, but the ifficial scorer invoked the “briefly and ineffectively” exception and awarded the W to Rivera (and thus not awarding a save). The was pretty bad, but nowhere near as bad as what the official scorer initially did tonight.