Bullpen Report: May 30, 2018

Tuesday’s most interesting closer development actually came in a non-save situation. Felipe Vazquez — much to the surprise of many fantasy owners — reportedly said he would be ready to pitch on Tuesday, even though he had to be lifted early from Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals due to forearm discomfort. As a man of his word, Vazquez pitched the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s contest against the Cubs, even though the Pirates were behind, 8-4.

Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk concluded that Vazquez had minor flexor muscle irritation that required rest and treatment. Vazquez did seem to be fine on Tuesday, getting all three hitters he faced to ground out while averaging 100.0 mph on his fastball.

While Vazquez, who had blown saves in each of his three previous appearances, seemed to get back on the right course, the struggles continued for Michael Feliz. He pitched the eighth inning for the Pirates after Edgar Santana allowed three runs and was credited with a blown save in the seventh, and he gave up a Ben Zobrist double and a Kyle Schwarber home run on his first two pitches. Feliz struggled with control but did manage to get out of the inning without allowing any other runs. This marked the fourth straight appearance in which Feliz had allowed at least one run, and over those three innings, he walked four batters and allowed two home runs.

Since the Rays traded Alex Colome to the Mariners last Friday, we’ve seen a 5.2-inning save from Austin Pruitt, a one-out save from Jonny Venters and, most recently, a conventional save from Sergio Romo. With a 3-1 lead, Kevin Cash chose to bring in presumed closer candidate Chaz Roe for the eighth inning, and he worked around a walk and a single to keep the lead at two runs. Daniel Robertson’s solo homer in the top of the ninth expanded the lead to three, which was fortunate for Romo, who replaced Roe. Romo began the ninth by allowing a Matt Olson single and a Stephen Piscotty double, and both of them subsequently scored on ground outs. The former Giant and Dodger was able to notch his first save of the season, finishing the A’s off with another ground ball out hit by Marcus Semien.

While the use of Romo as a closer seems odd after he had “opened” four games for the Rays in the past week-and-a-half, it is consistent with Cash’s stated plan of using him, along with Roe and Jose Alvarado, in save situations. Romo’s affinity for hard contact, as evidenced by a 45.9 percent hard contact rate, 1.69 HR/9 and 12.5 percent high drive rate (per xStats), may give him the appearance of being an inferior option, but Roe has similar issues. Alvarado is the only one of the trio to miss bats and avoid hard contact, yet Cash has used him only three times in the last 13 games.

At least for one game, we had a new entrant in the Rays’ late-inning mix. Jaime Schultz made his major league debut, pitching the seventh inning, just ahead of Roe and Romo. All he did was strike out the side. Schultz has been a strikeout machine in the minors, and most recently with Triple-A Durham, he had struck out 29 batters in 15.1 innings this season. However, he had also issued 16 walks. The Rays optioned him back to Durham after the game.

As tumultuous as the Rays’ closer situation has been in recent days, the Mariners have had a refreshing lack of drama thanks to Edwin Diaz. That’s what made his Tuesday night meltdown against the Rangers all the more surprising. Entering the ninth inning in a tie game, Diaz loaded the bases with one out and then gave up a bases-clearing double to Rougned Odor. While Diaz deserves the blame for getting into trouble in the first place, Odor should get some credit for driving a slider that was well off the plate into deep left field. It’s not often that hitters connect with Diaz’s slider when it’s outside of the strike zone, as the Mariners’ closer has an 18.4 percent O-Contact% on the pitch.

Ken Giles had pitched on back-to-back days, so with a 5-3 lead against the Yankees, the Astros relied on Chris Devenski to put the game away in the ninth inning. Miguel Andujar, who swings at a healthy 52.6 percent rate, did not take a hack against Devenski, who is throwing just 38.4 percent of his pitches in the strike zone, and a five-pitch walk ensued. Two batters later, Brett Gardner tied the game up with a home run. In the bottom of the 10th, Brad Peacock gave up Gleyber Torres‘ walk-off single. Peacock has now given up runs in his last three appearances and been charged with a loss in each of his last two times out.

Quick hits: The Mets placed A.J. Ramos on the 10-day disabled list with rotator cuff tendinitis on Monday. They also sent Anthony Swarzak (oblique) on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Las Vegas on Tuesday. In his first appearance, Swarzak gave up one hit and struck out two in a scoreless inning. He may return within a week. Seth Lugo has been removed from the closer grid, as he is scheduled to start for the Mets against the Cubs on Thursday..In just his third major league appearance for the Royals, Scott Barlow tossed four scoreless innings against the Twins on Tuesday night, racking up five strikeouts and earning his first career win. As a starter in the Dodgers’ minor league system last year, Barlow recorded 160 strikeouts in 139.2 innings. In seven games (six starts) for Triple-A Omaha this season, he had a 3.94 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 32 innings…Since getting called up from Triple-A Nashville on May 18, Emilio Pagan has thrown 6.1 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and just two hits allowed. On Tuesday night, he pitched two perfect innings against the Rays with four strikeouts.