Bullpen Report: August 6, 2015

A go-ahead solo home run off the bat of Jacoby Ellsbury in the home half of the seventh-inning provided Andrew Miller an opportunity to convert his 24th save of the season in 24 chances. With the Yankees up 2-1 on their chief rivals, Miller secured the three outs necessary to remain a perfect 24-for-24 in save chances this season. The lefty surrendered a free pass along with a single, but escaped unscathed in a 17-pitch effort to seal the deal. In 37 frames this season, Miller is 0-2 with 24 saves, a 1.46 ERA (2.55 FIP) and a 28.4% K-BB%. Entering tonight, Miller’s owned career bests in swinging strike rate (17.4% SwStr%), nailing the first-pitch strike (66.4% F-Strike%), limiting contact on pitches both in (76.3% Z-Contact%) and out (35% O-Contact%) of the zone as well as inducing swings on pitches outside of the zone (33.2% O-Swing%).

Zack Greinke got tagged for a six-pack of runs — five in the first inning — against the Phillies today, but the Dodgers’ bats kept the right-hander in the game leading to a Kenley Jansen save opportunity in the ninth. But Jansen came on in relief of Joel Peralta, who yielded a pair of singles with the Dodgers up four runs before giving way to the closer. Jansen then surrendered a double to Maikel Franco — allowing both of Peralta’s runners to score — followed by a single to Ryan Howard before inducing a game-ending double play. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but Jansen picked up his 21st save of the year in 22 chances and owns a 2.86 ERA (2.39 FIP) in 28.1 innings. The successful save conversion pushed Greinke to an 11-2 record on the year.

Arodys Vizcaino notched his first save of the season — and his career — in a 9-8 Braves victory over the Marlins. He allowed a single and is guilty of throwing a wild pitch, but eventually closed out the Marlins in a 20-pitch effort. Vizcaino took over the closer’s role for Atlanta when they shipped off Jim Johnson to the Dodgers at the trade deadline. The 24-year-old right-hander is available in more than 60% of Yahoo! leagues at the time of this writing.

Quick Hitters: Another day, another save for Cardinals’ closer Trevor Rosenthal. He did allow an infield hit along with a free pass, but escaped with his 32nd successful conversion on the year. Hector Rondon fanned one in a 12-pitch outing to secure his 17th save of the season in a 5-4 Cubs win over the Giants. Alex Wilson yielded a hit and two walks in the top of the ninth of a tie game, but failed to allow any Royals to cross the plate. Wilson was rewarded with his second win of the season (now 2-3) thanks to an Ian Kinsler walk off home run in the home half of the ninth-inning. Bruce Rondon appeared in the eighth and fanned two in a clean inning of work.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	David Hernandez	Addison Reed
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	David Aardsma	Jason Frasor	Jason Grilli
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Brad Brach
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Alexi Ogando
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Jason Motte	Pedro Strop	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	Tommy Kahnle	Rafael Betancourt	Justin Miller
Detroit	Alex Wilson	Bruce Rondon	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	Jeremy Jeffress	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Kevin Jepsen	Trevor May
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Tyler Clippard	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson
Oakland	Edward Mujica	Fernando Rodriguez	Drew Pomeranz	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	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	Sam Dyson	Jake Diekman	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.]