September 25, 2016
San Francisco Giants – Sergio Romo converted his second straight save opportunity for the Giants. Romo pitched a scoreless tenth inning, and was left in by Bruce Boche to face two lefty batters. Boche had been playing match-ups in the later innings so the fact that Boche left him in there is enough for us to remove the asterisk.
Hierarchy remains: Romo | Law | Smith.
Houston Astros — Things keep getting worse for Ken Giles. A day after one of his worst outings of the season, he was hit by a line drive during batting practice on Saturday. X-rays came back negative and he has been diagnosed with a contusion. However, manager A.J. Hinch said it wasn’t good. If Giles is unable to go the rest of the season, Luke Gregerson would likely fill in as closer.
Hierarchy remains: Giles | Gregerson | Harris.
Philadelphia Phillies — With Jeanmar Gomez getting a break from closing, Michael Mariot got the call in the ninth inning on Saturday. He gave up a lead-off homer to the first batter he faced, and walked a couple batters, but was still able to convert the save chance. Hector Neris pitched the eighth inning ahead of Mariot and gave up a run on a hit and two walks. Neither pitcher was particularly impressive, so we will move Mariot ahead of Neris for now based on how manager Pete Mackanin used them yesterday. Cue the bad Mariot jokes on twitter.
Updated hierarchy: *Gomez | Mariot | Neris.
* = closer-by-committee
Kansas City Royals — Kelvin Herrera picked up his twelfth save of the season on Saturday. Wade Davis hadn’t pitched in a week so the Royals sent him out there in the eighth inning when they were down two and it didn’t look like there would be a need for the bottom of the ninth. The Royals ended up scoring five runs in the top of the ninth and that left Herrera to pitch the bottom of the ninth. Although Herrera has been great, Wade Davis is still the closer in Kansas City.
Hierarchy remains: Davis | Herrera | Soria.
VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Will Harris, Houston Astros – Ken Giles could be unavailable due to injury and Luke Gregerson has pitched in two straight and three of four.
2. Hector Neris, Philadelphia Phillies – Michael Mariot got the save yesterday but Neris could also get a shot at the end of this season.
