Bullpen Report: August 20, 2015

Cody Allen struggled a bit in the Bronx today, but escaped a ninth-inning jam to finish off the Yankees and notch his 24th save of the season. He yielded an earned run on a pair of singles and a walk, but managed to induce a fly ball out off the bat of Didi Gregorious for the final out of the game, stranding a duo of ducks on the pond. Just 14 of Allen’s 21 pitches fell for strikes tonight, four of which were looking and one by swing-and-miss. He also nailed the first pitch for a strike to three of the six batters he faced.

The Indian is now 24-of-27 in save chances with a 4.04 ERA (2.13 FIP) and a 1.35 WHIP (Yuk!). Among qualified relievers entering tonight, Allen owned the third-highest ERA-FIP at 1.85 thanks in part to the highest average on balls in play in that group (.374 BABIP vs. .312 career). In addition to what seems to be some bad luck, there appears to be a slight dip in velocity on each of his offerings, but Allen’s K-BB% is the highest of his career (25%, entering today’s outing) and he remains green in Cleveland. Bryan Shaw also took the hill today, fanned two and picked up his 15th hold on the year.

The Diamondbacks called upon their 35-year-old closer, Brad Ziegler, with a one-run lead to close out the Reds in Cincinnati this evening. Ziegler needed just eight pitches while facing the minimum to induce a trio of worm burners and seal the victory for Arizona, their 59th in ‘15. Of the righty’s eight pitches, seven fell for strikes — two were looking, two were fouled off and three turned into ground ball outs — and blue determined just one of his offerings failed to make the zone. Ziegler is now 22-of-24 in save opportunities this season with a 1.55 ERA (3.60 FIP) and a 0.84 WHIP. On a side note, former Dbacks closer Addison Reed is up to eight consecutive scoreless outings with a 3:1 K:BB (but has allowed nine hits in said 10.2 innings).

Junichi Tazawa dished a clean inning of work on ten pitches to earn his second save of the season for the Red Sox. Three of the right-hander’s nine strikes came on swing-and-miss stuff. Tazawa is the guy to own in Boston for saves (today), but is still available in over 85% of Y! leagues and 92% of ESPN formats. Fix that. Alexi Ogando (10) and Robbie Ross, Jr. (8) each picked up holds in the 4-1 win over the Royals.

Quick Hitters: John Axford surrendered a hit and a walk, but fanned three on 26 pitches en route to his 17th save on the year. Fifteen of Axford’s 26 pitches were strikes and five of the 15 strikes were of the swing-and-miss variety. Scott Oberg locked up his ninth hold of the season as well in Colorado. Miami’s closer A.J. Ramos served up a solo homer to pinch hitter Cody Asche, but fanned two in a 17-pitch effort to close out Philadelphia. Bryan Morris (10) and Mike Dunn (19) notched holds in the Marlins’ victory over the Phillies.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	Addison Reed
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	David Aardsma	Jason Frasor	Jason Grilli
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Brad Brach
Boston	Junichi Tazawa	Jean Machi	Alexi Ogando	Koji Uehara
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Tommy Hunter	Rafael Soriano
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Jacob Petricka	Zach Putnam
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Ryan Mattheus
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Zach McAllister
Colorado	John Axford	Justin Miller	Tommy Kahnle
Detroit	Bruce Rondon	Alex Wilson	Al Albuerquerque	Joe Nathan
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Pat Neshek	Chad Qualls
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Jim Johnson	Pedro Baez
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn	Bryan Morris	Carter Capps
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Will Smith	Jeremy Jeffress
Minnesota	Kevin Jepsen	Casey Fien	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Tyler Clippard	Carlos Torres	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson
Oakland	Drew Pomeranz	Fernando Rodriguez	Evan Scribner	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Ken Giles	Luis Garcia	Jeanmar Gomez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Joakim Soria	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Steve Cishek	Jordan Walden
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Joaquin Benoit	Shawn Kelley	Brendan Maurer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Hunter Strickland
Seattle	Carson Smith	Fernando Rodney	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Brad Boxberger	Jake McGee	Steve Geltz
Texas	Shawn Tolleson	Jake Diekman	Sam Dyson	Tanner Scheppers
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Aaron Sanchez	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Jonathan Papelbon	Drew Storen	Casey Janssen

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]