Bullpen Report: April 24, 2019

For the second night in a row, Emilio Pagan notched a save for the Rays against the Royals, tossing a perfect inning in both contests. He is not anywhere near the top of the most-added lists on ESPN and CBS, but he is at the very top of Yahoo’s list. Pagan was called into closer duty on both occasions because the usual candidates — Jose Alvarado and Diego Castillo — were unavailable due to heavy workloads over the weekend.

Because Kevin Cash sent us a strong signal that Pagan is next-in-line for saves after Alvarado and Castillo, he now sits behind the Rays’ two main high-leverage relievers in our closer grid. Even without saves, Pagan is not a bad reliever to own in holds leagues and deeper formats. He gets swings-and-misses (career 14.1 percent SwStr%) and a ton of popups, and he throws strikes, making him a reliable bet to post a low WHIP.

In his postgame interview, Cash said that both Alvarado and Castillo would be available for Wednesday’s game against the Royals, so the Rays’ bullpen pecking order should get back to normal.

The Yankees were in a similar situation in their game against the Angels, as Aroldis Chapman and Adam Ottavino had pitched on both Sunday and Monday. They were up 7-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, so Aaron Boone entrusted the struggling Chad Green with getting through the frame. Green did not get an out in the inning, as he loaded the bases by yielding back-to-back singles and a walk and then coughing up Justin Bour’s grand slam. Luis Cessa took over from there, and nearly created his own jam. An Andrelton Simmons double was followed by a four-pitch walk to Albert Pujols, but then Cessa limited the damage by striking out Brian Goodwin and inducing a double play ball from Kevan Smith.

With Chapman and Ottavino getting a break, Aaron Boone turned to Zack Britton to close out the win. Britton did what Britton does, getting three straight ground ball outs to wrap up the 7-5 victory. It was the ex-Oriole’s first save of the season, and he now has a 78.6 percent ground ball rate through his first 10.1 innings.

I like Nick Anderson enough that I have bid on him in a couple of my deeper leagues, so it hurt to remove him from the closer grid. But after Don Mattingly went with Adam Conley, Drew Steckenrider and Sergio Romo to seal a win for Pablo Lopez against the Indians, I felt I had to. Anderson had not pitched in four days, so Mattingly still clearly preferred Conley and Steckenrider as his setup options. Romo, for his part, retired the side for his third save.

Ron Gardenhire had been avoiding Joe Jimenez in high-leverage situations of late, but with the Tigers leading the Red Sox, 3-0, in the nightcap of their doubleheader, he decided to give Jimenez the seventh inning. He allowed three singles, with the third one driving in the Red Sox’s first run. Jimenez did get a pair of outs, and none of the singles were hit particularly hard, but he gave way to Daniel Stumpf, who struck out Steve Pearce to end the threat.

Victor Alcantara, who picked up his fourth and fifth holds in the doubleheader, appears safe in the eighth inning role for now. Shane Greene successfully closed out the second game, increasing his saves total to 11.

Whatever grasp former Tiger Alex Wilson has on a setup role with the Brewers is getting shaky. Pitching the bottom of the eighth inning in a 2-2 tie with the Cardinals, Wilson allowed a leadoff home run to Paul DeJong. After he issued a one-out walk to Jose Martinez, Yadier Molina extended the Cardinals’ lead with an RBI double. Jordan Hicks was able to walk around a Travis Shaw leadoff homer in the ninth inning to record his sixth save, leaving Wilson with his first loss of the season.

Quick hits: Kirby Yates kept pace with Greene for the major league saves lead, pitching a perfect ninth inning to finish off the Mariners in a 6-3 Padres win…Will Smith (6), Raisel Iglesias (5), Greg Holland (5) and Sean Doolittle (3) all recorded saves on Tuesday…After failing to get an out and allowing a combined three home runs over his last two outings, Cody Allen hit the reset button on Tuesday night. He pitched a scoreless ninth inning in the Angels’ loss to the Yankees…..The A’s may place Lou Trivino on the 10-day injured list with his thumb injury. However, they may not make a decision until Thursday….The Pirates placed Nick Burdi (biceps, shoulder) on the 10-day IL on Tuesday…Blaine Hardy went on the 10-day IL on Tuesday with a forearm strain.