Bullpen Report: August 3, 2018

Thursday’s slate of games did not feature that much closer intrigue, as five of the 12 games were decided by at least six runs. Three of the blowouts were won by teams scoring 15 or more runs.

Yet for fantasy owners counting on Kyle Barraclough or Wade Davis, there was more than enough drama. Barraclough may have blown a save against the Phillies, but the Marlins’ closer had another nemesis to battle: his own control. He threw only six of his 24 pitches in the strike zone and did not issue a first-pitch strike to any of the six batters he faced. His one-out walk to Asdrubal Cabrera loaded the bases, and then Nick Williams‘ groundout brought in Scott Kingery for the tying run. Three pitches later, Maikel Franco finished off Barraclough and the Marlins with a walk-off home run.

Since the beginning of July, Barraclough has an 11.32 ERA with nine walks in 10.1 innings. He has also blown four saves and lost all three of his decisions over that span, and two of those losses were the result of a walk-off home run. Don Mattingly has not committed to making a change at closer, only saying that “it’s something we’ll talk about.” Still, it’s nearly impossible to imagine him sending Barraclough out for the next save opportunity after this latest implosion.

Drew Steckenrider, who set Barraclough up with a 1-2-3 eighth inning, has overcome a rough stretch in mid-July. He has turned in five straight scoreless one-inning performances, and his 45.8 percent season-to-date Zone% would be a breath of fresh air. Mattingly could easily hand him the ball for the Marlins’ next save opportunity.

Davis has had several lengthy stretches of consistently good performance this season, but they frequently have ended with a thud. Since July 1, Davis has made 13 appearances and held the opposition scoreless in 11 of them. However, he allowed multiple runs in the other two, and one of those came on Thursday against the Cardinals. Davis’ outing started off well enough, as he induced a first-pitch groundout from Yairo Munoz, but then he yielded back-to-back singles to Greg Garcia and Harrison Bader, which put the potential tying and winning runs on base. Jose Martinez’s line drive into right field made it three singles in a row, and it brought Garcia and Bader home to give the Cardinals the win.

Davis’ previous blowups seemed to come out of nowhere, but there was a discernible pattern. Three of his four previous multiple-run appearances occurred at Coors Field, and the fourth was at hitter-friendly Globe Life Park. This time, Davis was pitching at a much more hospitable venue: Busch Stadium. Owners should treat this as a garden variety blown save, but it’s best to look for alternatives to Davis when he pitches at home.

As one of the five teams that got blown out on Thursday, the Reds did not need Raisel Iglesias to close out a game, but they brought him in to get some work in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Nationals. He coughed up a two-run homer to Trea Turner and a solo shot to Bryce Harper, allowing the Nationals to expand their lead from five to eight runs. Iglesias has now allowed six earned runs over his last 13.1 innings, and all of the runs were driven in by homers. He did finish up July with a string of eight consecutive appearances without an earned run, so he will avoid the “Not Very Stable” tag for now.

Ken Giles reported to the Blue Jays on Thursday, and John Gibbons said that he would use him as his closer. He also added, though, that he would give Giles an inning of work in a non-closing situation before handing him the reins to the ninth inning. Perhaps Gibbons wants to keep Giles away from any sort of high-leverage situation for that first appearance, because he opted not to use him in the eighth inning with a 4-2 lead against the Mariners. Instead, he brought Joe Biagini in to relieve Mike Hauschild, who followed up opener Tyler Clippard with six scoreless innings of relief in his Blue Jays’ debut. With the lead expanded to 7-3, Ryan Tepera came in to pitch a scoreless ninth inning.

The White Sox were presented with their first save situation since Jace Fry and Jeanmar Gomez combined to throw away a lead against the Blue Jays on Sunday. Rick Renteria played the matchups almost all the way. Xavier Cedeno, who finished the eighth inning, stayed in to face lefty Brett Phillips to begin the ninth. After yielding a double, he gave way to Gomez, who retired right-handed Hunter Dozier. Then Renteria called on Luis Avilan for the lefty-lefty matchup with Ryan O’Hearn, but he faced pinch-hitter Rosell Herrera instead. Avilan took care of Herrera as well as Alcides Escobar, and he wound up with his first career save.

Between the lack of a reliable choice among the White Sox’s relievers and Renteria’s usage patterns, it makes sense to stay away from this situation for now.

Quick hits: The Angels have not had a save since Justin Anderson recorded one on July 8 against the Dodgers…Jonathan Holder entered Thursday night’s game at Boston with a 2.06 ERA. By the time all seven batters he faced reached base and scored, his ERA was up to 3.50…Jake Diekman and Brad Ziegler made their first appearances since getting traded to the Diamondbacks, but it did not go especially well for either of them. Diekman was brought in for the top of the seventh inning with a 2-1 deficit, and he issued a pair of one-out walks along with making a throwing error and a wild pitch. He gave way to Ziegler, who allowed an inherited runner to score on a sacrifice fly. He allowed no further damage in the seventh, but was charged with four runs in the eighth…The Mets demoted Jacob Rhame to Triple-A Las Vegas on Thursday and brought up recently-acquried Bobby Wahl, who then made his first appearance with his new team against the Braves. Wahl popped up Adam Duvall and struck out Johan Camargo in the Mets’ 4-2 loss.