Closer Monkey

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  • Vulture save lottery tickets galore on the penultimate day of the season

    September 30, 2017 Chicago Cubs — The Cubs took the lead in the eighth inning last night, and brought in the already-warm Justin Grimm for the ninth. Grimm pitched a perfect inning to pick up his first save of the year. Grimm has had a tough year, and doesn’t normally figure into the late inning plans…

  • Maybe a healthy Andrew Miller can give the Indians a spark

    September 14, 2017 Cleveland Indians — Andrew Miller will be activated on Thursday, but he’ll spend some time reacclimating to high-leverage work as the Indians coast into the playoffs. The Tribe is 37-11 in games where Miller pitches, and 29-7 when he’s on the disabled list. Hierarchy remains: Allen | Smith | Shaw. VULTURE SAVE WATCH…

  • Jim Johnson adds a seventh blown save to his league-leading total

    July 8, 2017 Atlanta Braves — Arodys Vizcaino’s injury came at a bad time for the Braves. In danger of completely falling out of contention, the team has no obvious backup plan to replace Jim Johnson and his league-leading seven blown saves, and it faces decreasing returns if it seeks to move the veteran before the…

  • Jose Leclerc robs Keone Kela of a save chance

    July 3, 2017 Texas Rangers — With Alex Claudio unavailable, it was Ernesto Frieri and Matt Bush for the Rangers in the sixth and seventh of a one-run game. When Jeff Banister turned to Jose Leclerc in the eighth, however, he gave up the go-ahead home run, robbing Keone Kela of his first chance to…

  • Déjà vu for Tony Watson in Pittsburgh as Felipe Rivero awaits

    June 8, 2017 Pittsburgh Pirates — For the second straight night, Tony Watson gave up a tying two-run dinger, completing a four-run Baltimore comeback in the ninth. About an hour later, everyone on Twitter made the same obvious joke. Felipe Rivero remained unhittable in his inning of relief, leading Pirates fans and bullpen speculators to wonder what it will take for…