Bullpen Report: June 14, 2016

I was mistaken yesterday in thinking this version of the Bullpen Report would come out early the next morning. Sorry if this caused any confusion, but this is good news for those night owls who will get the BR earlier than expected.

The Nationals have placed Jonathan Papelbon on the 15-day DL with an intercostal strain, and have activated Matt Belisle from the DL. It appears he suffered the injury warming up during Sunday’s game where he earned the save, but gave up a home run to Maikel Franco. Baker said he likes Shawn Kelley, but has to be careful with his workload because of two Tommy John surgeries. So far, he has pitched the best out of the National relievers and seems like the best choice to close. In tonight’s game, the Nationals did not have a lead late in the game, but were tied with the Cubs in the 9th inning. After giving up only a double and no runs in the 8th inning on 11 pitches, Baker decided to stick with Sammy Solis in the 9th inning. He had only used Oliver Perez up until that point, so it appeared most of the bullpen was available. Solis walked Addison Russell on a close ball four, David Ross sacrificed him to second, and then he gave up a run-scoring double to Albert Almora, which gave the Cubs the lead. It will be worth monitoring to see what role Solis will have moving forward. After this appearance, his ERA went from 1.71 to 4.50, yet his FIP dropped from 3.02 to 2.62. Go figure. On the Cubs end, Hector Rondon got charged with the blown save after being asked to get a five out save. He gave up an inherited run in the 8th, but then earned the win after the Cubs took the lead and he retired the side in order in the 9th.

Tony Watson seems to be back on track after pitching the 9th today with a 4-0 lead, and not allowing a run for his 4th straight appearance. He had hit a road bump of July 4th and 5th giving up a total of 6 runs in 1.1 innings. Since then, he has had 5 Ks over 4 innings with 1 BB and 1 hit allowed. I know this is not a significant sample size to draw sweeping conclusions, but still encouraging for an integral part of the Pirates pen.

A few middle relievers had some struggles tonight, so let’s see what happened. First up, in Tampa Bay, Seattle had a 7-4 lead going into the bottom of the 7th. Nick Vincent, who entered the game with a 2.28 ERA (2.61 FIP), gave up a three-run homer to Evan Longoria, making that his fourth blown save of the year. Mike Montgomery relieved Vincent in a tie ballgame, and proceeded to give up a run on two walks and hit. Vincent’s ERA went up to 3.18 (3.12 FIP) after the outing. Onto Baltimore where despite earning his 7th hold, Mychal Givens struggled for the second straight outing giving up a double and a walk in 0.1 of an inning. Zach Britton came in for the five-out save and gave up the inherited run, but managed to close out Boston for his 20th save. Finally, in Kansas City, Bryan Shaw entered the game with a 2-1 lead and blew that hold after giving up a two-run homer to Salvador Perez. Not as if Shaw has been lights out this year, but as Cleveland’s next in line, this was a really rough blown save for him. For the season he has a 5.68 ERA (5.72 FIP), and has allowed 2.49 HR/9.

Quick Notes: Tony Cingrani was unavailable this evening, so the Reds called Blake Wood to close the game. He immediately loaded the bases, then struck out the next batter and induced a game-ending double play. Fun with Reds closers. Astros bullpen was perfect as Tony Sipp (8) and Ken Giles (11) earned holds, and Will Harris (4) got the save, with each striking out a batter. Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis were unavailable for the Royals, so Joakim Soria pitched 1.2 innings to earn his third win of the season. Alex Colome got his 19th save of the season tonight, as well.
Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	Tyler Clippard
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	Jim Johnson	Hunter Cervenka
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Mychal Givens	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Justin Grimm
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Zach Duke
Cincy	Tony Cingrani	Ross Ohlendorf	Blake Wood	Jumbo Diaz
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Dan Otero
Colorado	Carlos Estevez	Jason Motte	Boone Logan	Jake McGee
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene	Bruce Rondon
Houston	Will Harris	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson
KC	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria
LAA	Huston Street	Fernando Salas	Cam Bedrosian	Joe Smith
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Joe Blanton	Yimi Garcia
Miami	A.J. Ramos	David Phelps	Kyle Barraclough
Milwaukee	Jeremy Jeffress	Will Smith	Tyler Thornburg
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler	Fernando Abad	Kevin Jepsen	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Addison Reed	Jim Henderson
NY (AL)	Aroldis Chapman	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances
Oakland	Ryan Madson	Sean Doolittle	John Axford
Philly	Jeanmar Gomez	Hector Neris	David Hernandez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Neftali Feliz	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Seung Hwan Oh
SD	Fernando Rodney	Ryan Buchter	Brandon Maurer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Cory Gearrin	Hunter Strickland	Sergio Romo
Seattle	Steve Cishek	Joaquin Benoit	Nick Vincent
TB	Alex Colome	Erasmo Ramirez	Xavier Cedeno	Brad Boxberger
Texas	Sam Dyson	Jake Diekman	Matt Bush	Keone Kela
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Jason Grilli	Gavin Floyd	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Shawn Kelley	Felipe Rivero	Sammy Solis	Jonathan Papelbon

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