Quality start

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In the statistics of the team sport baseball, a quality start is awarded to a starting pitcher who completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs. Developed by sportswriter John Lowe^{[citation needed]}, the statistic is preferred by sabermetricians to that of winning percentage—the number of wins garnered by a pitcher as a fraction of his total starts—insofar as it acts independent of such factors beyond a pitcher's control as fielding errors, blown saves, and poor run support. ESPN.com, indeed, terms a loss suffered by a pitcher in a quality start as a tough loss and a win earned by a pitcher in a non-quality start a cheap win^{[citation needed]}.

A pitcher who posts a quality start usually earns a game score of at least 50 points, although a quality start is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for a player's earning such a game score.