September 6, 2013
Boston Red Sox – Junichi Tazawa had a terrible outing on Thursday, allowing two inherited runners to score and then giving up two more runs of his own. Craig Breslow, meanwhile, logged two spotless innings and picked up the win. Breslow had basically been splitting the 8th inning role with Tazawa — the lefty got the 8th inning hold on Monday — and after last night, he stands to get a larger share of the big late-game innings. Hierarchy change: Craig Breslow to Set-up, Junichi Tazawa to 2nd in line.
| . | Closer | . | Set-Up | . | 2nd in line | . | 2014 Closer | . | Updated | |
| BOS | Koji Uehara | Craig Breslow | Junichi Tazawa | Koji Uehara | 9/6/13 |
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Houston Astros – Josh Fields picked up a four-out save on Thursday night. Though we’ve listed him as our “closer” for the past month, regular readers of this page know that he’s rarely been actually used in that fashion — there was just no one else who was pitching well enough to be promoted on our hierarchy, so Fields remained at the top of the pecking order by default. Given the general ineptitude displayed by almost everyone else given a crack at the 9th, however, the Astros finally turned back to Fields, and the righty delivered. Last night’s successful outing will probably earn him the chance to take the job and run with it. No hierarchy change.
| . | Closer | . | Set-Up | . | 2nd in line | . | 2014 Closer | . | Updated | |
| HOU | Josh Fields | Chia-Jen Lo | Kevin Chapman | Josh Fields | 9/6/13 |
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VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. J.J. Hoover, Cincinnati Reds – Aroldis Chapman has pitched in three straight.
2. David Robertson, New York Yankees – Mariano Rivera has pitched in three straight.
