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What Is a Quality Start in Baseball? The Rule, the 4.50 Criticism and the Records

A quality start is six or more innings with three or fewer earned runs. Where the stat came from, tough losses and cheap wins, the 4.50 ERA debate and records.

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Key takeaways

  • MLB defines a quality start as a starting pitcher going at least six innings and allowing three earned runs or fewer.
  • Sportswriter John Lowe coined it in 1985, along with 'tough losses' (losing a quality start) and 'cheap wins' (winning a non-quality start).
  • The minimum quality start, six innings and three earned runs, works out to a 4.50 ERA, an early criticism of the stat that has persisted.
  • An analysis of 1984–91 quality starts found an average ERA of 1.91 in them, far better than the 4.50 minimum.
  • Bob Gibson and Jacob deGrom share the record of 26 consecutive quality starts, and Framber Valdez holds the single-season streak record of 25, according to Wikipedia.

A starting pitcher has two jobs, as MLB's glossary puts it: prevent runs and get outs. The quality start is a one-line test of whether he did both. It is simple and, as its critics point out, a little blunt. This guide explains the rule, its history and its limits.

The six-innings, three-earned-runs rule

MLB's glossary defines it plainly: a starting pitcher records a quality start when he pitches at least six innings and allows three earned runs or fewer.

Start Innings Earned runs Quality start?
A 6 3 Yes, the minimum
B 7 2 Yes
C 8 4 No: too many runs
D 5⅔ 0 No: not enough innings
E 9 4 No, despite a complete game

Only earned runs count. MLB's glossary defines an earned run as any run that scores against a pitcher without the benefit of an error or a passed ball, often a judgment by the official scorer about whether the run would have scored without the defensive mistake. Runners a pitcher leaves on base still count against him if they later score earned runs, which is why a starter can lose a quality start after leaving the game. Baseball stats explained covers the scorebook basics.

John Lowe's 1985 invention

MLB's glossary credits John Lowe, then a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, with coining the term in 1985 as a way to judge whether a pitcher did his job. Lowe added two companion terms:

  • Tough loss: a quality start in which the pitcher took the loss.
  • Cheap win: a non-quality start in which the pitcher earned the win.

The pair separates how well the starter pitched from whether the box score credited him with the win or the loss.

The 4.50 ERA criticism and the complete-game gap

Earned run average is earned runs per nine innings; MLB's glossary gives the formula as 9 × earned runs ÷ innings pitched. The minimum quality start, three earned runs in six innings, is therefore a 4.50 ERA for that game: 3 ÷ 6 × 9 = 4.50. Wikipedia describes this as an early criticism, first made by Moss Klein in The Sporting News, and quotes Tim McCarver calling it "Rubbish". The criticism has persisted: in 2022, a writer for The Athletic called the stat "garbage" and proposed alternatives.

A second criticism runs the other way. A pitcher who goes nine innings and allows four earned runs has a 4.00 ERA for the game, better than the minimum quality start, yet does not get one. The stat ignores how deep a pitcher goes beyond six innings. Wikipedia quotes the former pitcher Carl Erskine: "in my day, a quality start was a complete game".

What the 1.91 average ERA says in its defence

The defence comes from the data. Wikipedia records that Bill James argued in his 1987 Baseball Abstract that the exact six-innings, three-runs case was extremely rare among quality starts, and that computer analysis of all quality starts from 1984 to 1991 found an average ERA of 1.91 in them. On that evidence, the typical quality start was much better than the minimum.

A worked comparison. Over three starts, a pitcher goes 6 innings and 3 runs, 7 innings and 1 run, and 8 innings and 0 runs. All three are quality starts. Together: 4 earned runs in 21 innings, an ERA of 4 ÷ 21 × 9 ≈ 1.71, far from 4.50.

Quality start records

From Wikipedia's article (a section it flags as needing more citations):

Record Holder
Most consecutive quality starts 26: Bob Gibson (September 1967 to July 1968), tied by Jacob deGrom (May 2018 to April 2019)
Most consecutive within one season 25 by Framber Valdez (April to September 2022); deGrom had 24 of his 26 in 2018, passing the 22 of Gibson and Chris Carpenter (2005)
Highest live-ball-era season percentage (as of the end of 2014) Greg Maddux, 24 quality starts in 25 games in 1994; Dwight Gooden 33 of 35 in 1985

Quality starts beside other pitching stats

The quality start is a counting stat for starters; it says nothing about relievers, whose roles baseball pitching roles explained describes. For judging pitchers over a season, analysts also use measures such as FIP, which FIP versus ERA explains.

In Baseball Career Sim 2026, one of our sports career games, the season record that builds into a fictional pitcher's career totals includes ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, wins and saves, per the app's page; the baseball career sim guide explains how the career builds, and how the MLB draft works where a real one starts.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

What is a quality start?
MLB's glossary defines it as a start in which the pitcher goes at least six innings and allows three earned runs or fewer. It is meant to show whether a starter did a quality job of preventing runs and getting outs.
Who invented the quality start?
John Lowe, then a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, coined the term in 1985. He also called a quality start that ended in a loss a 'tough loss', and a win from a non-quality start a 'cheap win'.
Why is the quality start criticised?
Because the minimum case, six innings and three earned runs, is a 4.50 ERA for that game. It also ignores long outings: nine innings with four earned runs is a 4.00 ERA but not a quality start.
What is the record for consecutive quality starts?
Wikipedia records 26 in a row, set by Bob Gibson between September 1967 and July 1968 and tied by Jacob deGrom between May 2018 and April 2019.

Sources

  1. Quality Start (QS) (glossary) (opens in a new tab)MLB.com — accessed
  2. Quality start (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  3. Earned Run Average (ERA) (glossary) (opens in a new tab)MLB.com — accessed
  4. Earned Run (ER) (glossary) (opens in a new tab)MLB.com — accessed

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