June 5, 2016
Houston Astros — Luke Gregerson blew his second save in a row yesterday, and he now leads the majors in blown saves with five. The Astros have other options as Ken Giles has been pitching better recently, and Will Harris hasn’t allowed a run in 24 straight appearances. We will monitor this situation to see if A.J. Hinch is ready to change things up.
Hierarchy remains: Gregerson | Giles | Harris.
Cincinnati Reds – Tony Cingrani pitched a perfect ninth on Saturday and picked up his fifth save of the season. Ross Ohlendorf pitched the eighth inning and gave up a run. Cingrani is getting all the save chances in Cincinnati, and we will finally drop his asterisk.
Hierarchy remains: Cingrani | Ohlendorf | Wood.
Detroit Tigers — Mark Lowe’s struggles continued yesterday as he gave up two more runs trying to finish off a five-run victory in the ninth. K-Rod ended up coming on to clean up Lowe’s mess and record a one-out save. Shane Greene was activated from the DL on Saturday and threw a perfect seventh inning with two strikeouts. Manager Brad Ausmus said that Greene would see time in the later innings, and we expect him to replace Lowe as the seventh inning guy ahead of Justin Wilson and K-Rod.
Updated hierarchy: Rodriguez | J.Wilson | Greene.
Atlanta Braves — Jim Johnson has returned from the DL and should slide back into his set-up role for now.
Updated hierarchy: Vizcaino | Johnson | Cervenka.
VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Pedro Baez, Los Angeles Dodgers – Kenley Jansen has pitched in two straight, and hasn’t pitched in three straight all season.
2. Will Smith, Milwaukee Brewers – Jeremy Jeffress has pitched in three of the past four.
3. Kevin Siegrist, St. Louis Cardinals – Trevor Rosenthal has appeared in two straight.
4. Xavier Cedeno, Tampa Bay Rays – Alex Colome has pitched in two straight, including a 34-pitch outing on Friday.