Bullpen Report: Wednesday, May 27

John Axford nailed down the win for the Rockies over the Reds and firmed up the bullpen order in Colorado. It’s time we finally turned them green. And no, that’s not a terrible marijuana joke, so just cool your jets. He struck out one and lowered his ERA to a sterling 0.75. His BB% is a pretty ugly 13.6%, he’s owner of a 92.3% LOB% and a 4.51 xFIP. Just because those numbers aren’t pretty doesn’t mean he’s in danger of losing his job. He’ll have to start coughing up leads for the color to change back to a yellow or red. He’s safe for now, but monitor his results.

Brett Cecil worked around two hits that he surrendered on good pitches to start the ninth. He got a strikeout, a fielder’s choice and a groundout to end the frame. David Robertson came on to try to nail down the victory for the White Sox for the second time in about eighteen hours. He failed on Tuesday night when Josh Donaldson homered. He failed on Wednesday when Josh Donaldson homered. Those two bombs have upped his ERA from 0.98 when he crossed the border to 2.61. He made Jose Reyes look silly with a three-pitch strikeout to open the ninth. The plan was to stay away from Donaldson, but he left a cutter up over the middle of the plate and it left the park in a hurry. His velocity was fine, he just wasn’t sharp. The White Sox have a doubleheader in Baltimore on Thursday, and Robertson threw 35 pitches Wednesday after throwing thirteen on Tuesday. Robin Ventura let him come out to pitch a scoreless tenth. I don’t know that we’ll see Robertson in either of the two games in Baltimore.

If Hunter Strickland keeps up his recent string of dominance, very recent mind you, he could worm his way onto the grid. He has seven strikeouts in 5.3 innings, hasn’t walked anyone and has surrendered only a solitary hit. He pitched the seventh against the Brewers and earned his first hold. He won’t be supplanting Sergio Romo or Santiago Casilla, who picked up their fourteenth hold and save respectively, but he could be a source of holds if your league keeps track of them.

Sean Doolittle made his debut on Wednesday, after missing the first chunk of the year recovering from a shoulder injury, a partially torn rotator cuff. His first few outings will be non-save situations and today certainly fit the bill, as he came on in the sixth with the A’s trailing 3-0. His fastball sat 94 last year, and he was able to just nudge it over 90 today. He struck out two, allowed a single and got a fly ball out. Barring a setback, there’s no reason to think he won’t be back in the closer role soon. Joakim Soria earned his fifteenth save for the Tigers in this one, and Joba Chamberlain got his seventh hold.

Craig Kimbrel earned a save in an unusual fashion on Wednesday. He got Chris Iannetta to line out to left and then he struck out Carlos Perez. Pinch hitter Johnny Giavotella singled to right, but Matt Kemp threw him out at second when he tried got greedy and tried to stretch it into a double.

Jim Johnson looked great, throwing twelve of his fourteen offerings for strikes and striking out two Dodgers in a perfect eighth. The same could not be said for Jason Grilli. He got Justin Turner to pop out, but then surrendered a home run to Alex Guerrero, bringing the Dodgers within a run. He gave up a single, Juan Uribe corralled a smash to third to force an out at second bringing up the potential winning run in Alberto Callaspo. After a 2-2 breaking ball that locked up Callaspo was inexplicably called a ball, Grilli got Callaspo to try to yank a fastball up and away into the seats in right. The ball nestled into Cameron Maybin’s glove in centre and that was that. Jim Johnson has better numbers than Grilli right now, but Fredi Gonzalez isn’t going to shake up the bullpen unless Grilli starts blowing games.

Brad Ziegler blew a save for the Diamondbacks, after giving up a pair of runs to the Cardinals. It wasn’t all his fault, but it was mostly his doing. He gave up a home run to Jason Heyward leading off the ninth. He meant to throw a sinker down and away, and got it down and in, allowing Heyward to golf it over the fence in right to tie the game. Peter Bourjos singled, a Kolton Wong grounder advanced Bourjos to second and prompted the Diamondbacks to walk Matt Carpenter intentionally. He threw five consecutive sinkers around the bottom of the zone to Matt Holliday, trying to induce a double play. He battled back from down 3-0 with the help of a generous call for strike one, and Holliday helped him by fouling off ball five. Ziegler missed badly with a curveball to load the bases. He was able to get the groundball he needed, but a Jordan Pacheco throwing error allowed the winning run to cross the plate and bedlam to ensue.

Of note: Mark Melancon earned his twelfth save of the year for the Pirates, and lowered his ERA to 2.86. Remember when it was an ugly 8.53 on April 21? Dellin Betances surrendered a hit, walked a man and gave up a run to the Royals. It was unearned though, so his ERA remains a pristine 0.00. Andrew Miller earned the save with a seven-pitch, perfect ninth. It was his fourteenth save. Glen Perkins earned save number eighteen for the Twins with a perfect ninth. Brad Boxberger joined David Robertson with his second ugly appearance in about 18 hours. He gave up a three-run shot to Nelson Cruz, which proved to be the only runs in a 3-0 Rays loss. Things might be a little different if Jake McGee didn’t give up a grand slam to Kyle Seager on Tuesday night, but he did, so he’s not exactly knocking on the closer door yet with his 8.10 ERA in four appearances. Zach Britton saved his twelfth for the Orioles. Drew Storen saved his sixteenth of the year for the Nationals.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	Addison Reed	Enrique Burgos
Atlanta	Jason Grilli	Jim Johnson	Luis Avilan
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Koji Uehara	Alexi Ogando	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Jason Motte
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Jacob Petricka	Zach Duke
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jumbo Diaz	Tony Cingrani	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Scott Atchison
Colorado	John Axford	Rafael Betancourt	Boone Logan	Adam Ottavino
Detroit	Joakim Soria	Joba Chamberlain	Angel Nesbitt	Joe Nathan
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Chad Qualls	Pat Neshek
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Vinnie Pestano
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Yimi Garcia	Chris Hatcher	Pedro Baez
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Bryan Morris	Carter Capps	Steve Cishek
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jonathan Broxton	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Brian Duensing	Blaine Boyer	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Carlos Torres	Sean Gilmartin	Jenrry Mejia
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson	Chris Martin
Oakland	Sean Doolittle	Tyler Clippard	Evan Scribner
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Luis Garcia
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Arquimedes Caminero
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Seth Maness	Matt Belisle	Jordan Walden
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Joaquin Benoit	Dale Thayer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Carson Smith	Tom Wilhelmsen	Danny Farquhar
TB	Brad Boxberger	Jake McGee	Kevin Jepsen
Texas	Shawn Tolleson	Keone Kela	Ross Ohlendorf	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Brett Cecil	Roberto Osuna	Steve Delabar	Miguel Castro
Wash.	Drew Storen	Aaron Barrett	Casey Janssen	Casey Janssen

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