Bullpen Report: September 14, 2017

All that stood between the Indians and the major league record for consecutive wins with no ties was Kelvin Herrera. On a different night, it could have been Scott Alexander who was charged with protecting a streak-ending 2-1 lead for the Royals. However, the lefty had pitched on each of the two previous days, tossing a total of 37 pitches, and on five of the previous seven days. So on Thursday night, Ned Yost chose Herrera to pitch the bottom of the ninth.

It was Herrera’s first save opportunity in a week and his third appearance since being removed from the closer’s role last Friday. He was close to preventing the Indians from making history, as he worked a 1-2 count on Francisco Lindor with two outs and a runner on first. Herrera’s fourth pitch was high, and Lindor smashed his fifth pitch off the left-field wall for a game-tying double. While Herrera blew the save, he did not take the loss, as he retired Austin Jackson for the third out.

In the 10th inning, the Indians got their 22nd straight win off Brandon Maurer, who gave up a leadoff double to Jose Ramirez, a walk to Edwin Encarnacion and a walkoff double to Jay Bruce. Though Maurer and Herrera played key roles in helping the Indians to achieve a historic feat, neither did much for their chances to get save opportunities over the final two-plus weeks. Mike Minor, a member of the current closer committee, entered in the sixth inning with two outs, but it made sense for Yost not to hold him back for a potential save in this game. Jake Junis’ pitch count was rising and the Indians had a potential threat with Encarnacion at first base and left-handed Bruce coming to bat.

Minor remains one of the Royals’ most reliable relievers, but he has yet to record his first career save. Alexander has looked like the Royals’ reliever to own, and after Thursday night’s game, his status as the team’s primary closer is appears even more secure.

Matt Belisle gave Herrera some company by blowing his second save since becoming the Twins’ closer in early August. Prior to Thursday night’s apperance against the Blue Jays, Belisle had been defying skeptics, much like Brandon Kintzler did before him. Like his predecessor, Belisle had been succeeding by inducing soft contact at an above-average rate (specifically, 22.2 percent since  Aug. 6), but he had also been striking out opponents at a 34.8 percent rate during that stretch. Prior to taking over the closer duties, Belisle’s strikeout rate was just 19.1 percent. Given that he has not experienced notable changes in his swinging or called strike rates, we probably should not read too much into his K-rate spike, especially since it came over a total of 12.2 innings.

Then again, Belisle is unowned in at least two-thirds of leagues on CBS, ESPN and Yahoo. At this point, Belisle might make half a dozen more appearances, so if he regresses in his strikeout rate, you are losing maybe only a couple of strikeouts. He should be a perfectly fine source of saves, though, so he is a worthy add if you are looking for a Herrera replacement or an upgrade over a struggling Shane Greene.

The Blue Jays, for their part, did not call on Ryan Tepera or Dominic Leone when they had a tie game going into either the ninth and 10th innings. They also did not use Roberto Osuna, who rejoined the team after being on paternity leave. Instead, Carlos Ramirez pitched the ninth, and Luis Santos worked the 10th — that is, until he gave up Byron Buxton’s two-out walkoff homer.

Other reliever notes: Keynan Middleton exited Thursday night’s game against the Astros with an undisclosed injury. He started off the seventh inning with the Angels trailing, 2-1. Middleton faced only one batter before departing…The Washington Post reports that Koda Glover (shoulder, hip) will not return for the Nationals this season.

Thursday night’s Astros-Angels game was still in progress at the time of this writing.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
ARI	Fernando Rodney	Archie Bradley	David Hernandez
ATL	Arodys Vizcaino	Jose Ramirez	Sam Freeman
BAL	Zach Britton	Brad Brach	Mychal Givens
BOS	Craig Kimbrel	Addison Reed	Matt Barnes	Carson Smith
CHC	Wade Davis	Pedro Strop	Carl Edwards Jr.
CWS	Juan Minaya	Danny Farquhar	Gregory Infante	Nate Jones
CIN	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Kevin Shackelford	Drew Storen
CLE	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Joe Smith
COL	Greg Holland	Jake McGee	Pat Neshek
DET	Shane Greene	Alex Wilson	Joe Jimenez
HOU	Ken Giles	Chris Devenski	Luke Gregerson
KC	Brandon Maurer	Mike Minor	Scott Alexander
LAA	Blake Parker	Cam Bedrosian	Yusmeiro Petit
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brandon Morrow	Pedro Baez
MIA	Brad Ziegler	Kyle Barraclough	Drew Steckenrider
MIL	Corey Knebel	Anthony Swarzak	Josh Hader
MIN	Matt Belisle	Trevor Hildenberger	Alan Busenitz
NYM	A.J. Ramos	Jeurys Familia	Paul Sewald
NYY	Aroldis Chapman	David Robertson	Dellin Betances
OAK	Blake Treinen	Chris Hatcher	Liam Hendriks
PHI	Hector Neris	Luis Garcia	Adam Morgan
PIT	Felipe Rivero	Daniel Hudson	A.J. Schugel	Joaquin Benoit
STL	Juan Nicasio	Tyler Lyons	John Brebbia	Trevor Rosenthal
SD	Brad Hand	Kirby Yates	Phil Maton
SF	Sam Dyson	Hunter Strickland	Cory Gearrin	Mark Melancon
SEA	Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent	Marc Rzepczynski	Tony Zych
TB	Alex Colome	Tommy Hunter	Steve Cishek
TEX	Alex Claudio	Tony Barnette	Matt Bush
TOR	Roberto Osuna	Ryan Tepera	Dominic Leone
WSH	Sean Doolittle	Brandon Kintzler	Ryan Madson

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