Bullpen Report: May 27, 2014

Just a few quick notes from tonight…

-After picking up a save in his first appearance back from the disabled list, Jason Grilli got the call in the bottom of the eighth-inning tonight with the Bucs down two runs to the Mets. Grilli surrendered a leadoff single to start the inning, then fanned the next three consecutive batters to keep the Pirates within striking distance heading into the final frame. Despite the fact that the Pirates were unable to stage the late-inning comeback, reports indicate that Grilli’s outing could be one of the final hurdles the right-hander needed to clear before reclaiming the closer tag. Stadium guns clocked the veteran’s fastball in the 92-94 range, which seems to be right in line with career norms. For his career, Grilli is 43-for-54 in save situations, 33 of which came in 2013.

-For the Metropolitans, Jenrry Mejia locked down his fourth save of the season in a two-inning effort. Without three of his middle relievers available and Mejia being used in both halves of Monday’s doubleheader (assuming he wouldn’t be available tomorrow), manager Terry Collins left his young right-hander on the hill for the final six outs. The last hurdle Mejia will need to clear before “officially” claiming the Mets’ closing position, will be to work on three consecutive days. Have to think that’s more of a formality at this point than anything.

–Koji Uehara notched his 11th save of the season in an 11-pitch effort against the Braves in Atlanta tonight. The Red Sox closer has now saved 27 consecutive regular season games dating back to July 6th of last season. That’s pretty good, especially for a 39-year-old. Despite the poor attempt at knocking his age, the right-hander’s velocity seems to be pretty in line with his career numbers and he continues to post ridiculous strikeout (38.7% K%) and walk (4% BB%) rates.

Quick Hitters: Joakim Soria is perfect no longer. The Rangers’ closer allowed two runs — one of which was unearned, based on said closer’s throwing error — on two hits and a walk. Soria is now 8-of-9 in save opportunities on the season and his streak of 12 consecutive outings without surrendering a run has come to a close. And Huston Street remains perfect on the year by dishing a clean frame on 11 pitches to notch his 15th save for the Friars. Casey Janssen yielded a hit, but fanned one en route to his eighth save of the season for the Blue Jays. Zach Britton blew his first career save tonight in a 7-6 Orioles loss to the Brewers. There wasn’t a lot of bloodshed in the blown save — in fact, a lot of credit should be given to the Brewers for manufacturing the run – but, a blown save is just what it is. Britton is now 3-of-4 in save chances on the year with a 0.94 ERA (3.30 FIP).

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	Brad Ziegler	Oliver Perez	J.J. Putz
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	David Carpenter	Luis Avilan	Jordan Walden
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Ryan Webb	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Andrew Miller
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Neil Ramirez	James Russell	Pedro Strop
CHI (AL)	Ronald Belisario	Daniel Webb	Jacob Petricka	Matt Lindstrom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jonathan Broxton	Sam LeCure
Cleveland	Bryan Shaw	Cody Allen	Scott Atchison
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Joba Chamberlain	Al Alburquerque	Joel Hanrahan
Houston	Chad Qualls	Kyle Farnsworth	Josh Zeid	Jesse Crain
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Joe Smith	Michael Kohn	Dane de la Rosa
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Chris Perez	Brian Wilson
Miami	Steve Cishek	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Will Smith	Brandon Kintzler	Jim Henderson
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jenrry Mejia	Jeurys Familia	Daisuke Matsuzaka	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	David Robertson	Dellin Betances	Adam Warren	Shawn Kelley
Oakland	Sean Doolittle	Luke Gregerson	Jim Johnson
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Mike Adams	Antonio Bastardo
Pittsburgh	Jason Grilli	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Carlos Martinez	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Joaquin Benoit	Alex Torres
SF	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt	Jean Machi	Santiago Casilla
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Grant Balfour	Jake McGee	Joel Peralta
Texas	Joakim Soria	Alexi Ogando	Jason Frasor	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Brett Cecil	Steve Delabar	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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