Bullpen Report: June 9, 2016

A couple of quick notes from today’s action…

Two consecutive days off seemed to be the gameplan for Sam Dyson this evening, making way for left-hander Jake Diekman in the ninth-inning of a save situation against the Astros. Diekman surrendered a leadoff walk to George Springer, but induced a Jose Altuve pop out and a double play off the bat of Tony Kemp to seal the victory, earning his first career save. Diekman’s ten pitch effort (four strikes) against a pair of righties and lefty was rather impressive, but Matt Bush’s trio of strikeouts in the eighth is worthy of a few words as well. Bush, the right-handed setup man, fanned Luis Valbuena and Carlos Gomez to start the frame, then yielded a free pass to Colby Rasmus before finishing off the innings with a strikeout of Jake Marisnick. Bush now owns a 1.42 ERA (1.46 FIP) with a 10.27 K/9 in 12.1 innings on the hill since being recalled. He’ll hang in the second chair for now, but his 96 mph heat will need to be monitored closely as the summer wears on

Roberto Osuna entered in the top of the ninth-inning of a tie game at home against the Orioles on Thursday. The 21-year-old surrendered a leadoff double to Hyun Soon Kim and the Orioles manufactured the only run needed to hand Osuna his first loss of the season. For Osuna, that’s three earned runs to pair with a loss and a blown save in his last three outings. He’s now 2-1 on the year with saves in 13-of-15 chances with a 1.91 ERA (3.38 xFIP) and a 10.48 K/9. Still green in Toronto. The bullpen beneficiary of Osuna’s mishap was Baltimore’s Zach Britton. He induced a trio of worm burners in the home half of the ninth to notch his 19th save of the year in as many chances and lowered his already sparkling ERA to 1.03 (1.75 xFIP) in 26.1 innings this season.

Jeurys Familia (20), David Robertson (14), Cody Allen (13), Trevor Rosenthal (11) and Aroldis Chapman (11) also earned saves on Thursday. Familia skated on thin ice Wednesday, but fanned a pair of Brewers in a rather routine day at the office to remain a perfect 20-for-20 in save situations this year. Robertson surrendered a pair of hits on Thursday, but escaped without allowing a run (or a walk!). Cody Allen gave up two hits, but also struck out two in a four-out save to seal the Indians’ 5-3 victory over the Mariners. Trevor Rosenthal needed just 11 pitches to induce a duo of ground outs and a pop out for his 11th successful save conversion in 12 opportunities. Aroldis Chapman also fanned two in a 13-pitch (9 strikes) outing, lowering his ERA to 1.93 (0.76 FIP) on the year with a 13.5 K/9.

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	Jake McGee	Carlos Estevez	Jason Motte
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	Cody 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	Gavin Floyd	Drew Storen	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Jonathan Papelbon	Shawn Kelley	Felipe Rivero

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