Bullpen Report: Thursday, June 18, 2015

The power outage wasn’t scary at all because it stays light out here until 11:00, so I’m fine. Thank you for your concern.

The Phillies back end power trio shut down the Orioles to win by a run Thursday afternoon. Once Jonathan Papelbon is traded to Canada, Ken Giles will capably take over saving the few games that the woeful Phillies will keep close. Just because they’re bad doesn’t mean they won’t have close games though. The Jays are playing great and save chances have been few and far between in Toronto. Luis Garcia will slide into the eighth-inning role. The trio struck out four over three scoreless innings.

Evan Scribner had given up six earned runs in his most recent 3.3 innings heading into action on Thursday. If Tyler Clippard gets moved to a contender, Scribner is most likely to get the save chances, so don’t be scared away by his 3.28 ERA. He has a 2.52 xFIP and 25.2% K%-BB%, but has a 20% HR/FB rate. He struck out two in his perfect inning against the Padres. Speaking of the Padres, it looks as if Brandon Maurer has jumped Joaquin Benoit and assumed the eighth inning role. He lowered his ERA to 1.59 and earned his sixth hold of the year, striking out one in his perfect inning. Craig Kimbrel struck out two for his 17th save.

Brad Boxberger recorded his first save in the month of June after blowing his previous two chances on the month, and seeing Jake McGee and Kevin Jepsen pick up saves in his place. Kevin Cash hasn’t said anything about Boxberger re-claiming the closer role, and it’s not safe to assume that it’s his again just yet. On any given night it could be any one of the three getting the opportunity. I think it will be Boxberger in the end, but there’s no guarantee he doesn’t pitch the seventh tomorrow. Jake McGee has been scoreless in 12 of his last 13 outings and he has shown that he’s capable of closing.

Bryan Shaw earned his first save of the year for the Indians after Terry Francona managed like he wanted to really beat the Cubs on Thursday. The rains came in the top of the fifth with the bases full of Cubs and the game tied at three. Francona didn’t mess around and brought in Cody Allen. He got Miguel Montero to fly out to end the inning. He stayed in for the sixth, and got three strikeouts, all of them looking. Zach McAllister struck out the four batters he faced, making it seven in a row. Four Cleveland relievers gave up one hit and struck out nine in 4.3 innings. This isn’t the start of a grand bullpen experiment or the end of Cody Allen closing in Cleveland. Not even close. For the Cubs, Pedro Strop struck out the side and walked one in his scoreless inning.

Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland were at it again, getting holds number nine, seven and save number 12 respectively. Holland pitched a perfect ninth, striking out two, averaging 94.2 and touching 95.5, up a bit from his average on the year of 93.3 and shy of his 2014 mark of 95.7. People have been concerned about Holland, what with outings like his turn on Monday, when he faced five batters, didn’t retire one and was charged with three earned. That was on the heels of five scoreless outings and he’s only given up runs three times in 17 appearances. He seems to be okay.

If you love pitching, the game in Chavez Ravine scratched you right where you itched. Kenley Jansen came into a scoreless tie and struck out a pair of overmatched Rangers. His showdown with Joey Gallo is the stuff that baseball dreams are made of. Vin Scully described it along the lines of, “I’ll throw it as hard as I can, you swing as hard as you can”. Jansen won. On to the bottom of the ninth, where Keone Kela got the call to try to shut down the Dodgers and head to extras. And YOU get a walk and YOU get a walk, Callaspo can’t advance them and it’s not quite a shock, grounder to first and twin-killing’s a lock, Kiki on third forced Kela to balk. Forgive me.

Of Note: As pointed out in yesterday’s Bullpen Report, Trevor Rosenthal was available Wednesday if he was needed, and on Thursday he actually warmed up and would have pitched the bottom of the ninth if the Cardinals had scored a run off of Blaine Boyer in their half of the final frame. Instead, Rosenthal heated up, then cooled down and watched the Twins score a run off of Carlos Villanueva. Koji Uehara struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 14th save. Mark Melancon pitched for the third day in a row and garnered his 23rd save of the year. Arquimedes Caminero pitched the eighth, and if I had to guess, it would be Tony Watson getting any save chance Friday, as it would be the young Caminero’s third day in a row. But who knows? Maybe Clint Hurdle plays the matchup and goes committee if the opportunity presents itself Friday night. And Caminero has only thrown 18 pitches over the two days, so who knows, maybe Hurdle won’t shy away from using him for a batter or two. Or three. Brooks Brown hit the DL in Colorado with shoulder inflammation, so LaTroy Hawkins returns to the grid. His spirit was always there.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Addison Reed	Daniel Hudson	Enrique Burgos
Atlanta	Jason Grilli	Jim Johnson	David Aardsma
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Alexi Ogando
CHI (NL)	Pedro Strop	Hecton Rondon	Jason Motte	Rafael Soriano
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Jacob Petricka	Zach Duke
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Ryan Mattheus	Tony Cingrani
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Zach McAllister
Colorado	John Axford	Boone Logan	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino
Detroit	Joakim Soria	Joba Chamberlain	Al Albuerquerque	Joe Nathan
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Chad Qualls	Pat Neshek
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Yimi Garcia	Adam Liberatore	Pedro Baez
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Carter Capps	Steve Cishek
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jeremy Jeffress	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Blaine Boyer	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Bobby Parnell	Carlos Torres	Jenrry Mejia
NY (AL)	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson	Chasen Shreve	Andrew Miller
Oakland	Tyler Clippard	Evan Scribner	Dan Otero	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Luis Garcia
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Arquimedes Caminero
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Seth Maness	Jordan Walden
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Brandon Maurer	Joaquin Benoit
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Hunter Strickland
Seattle	Carson Smith	Fernando Rodney	Mark Lowe
TB	Brad Boxberger	Jake McGee	Kevin Jepsen
Texas	Shawn Tolleson	Tanner Scheppers	Keone Kela	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Brett Cecil	Roberto Osuna	Steve Delabar	Miguel Castro
Wash.	Drew Storen	Casey Janssen	Matt Thornton	Aaron Barrett

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