Friday was a particularly chaotic day for closers, between a handful of blown saves and other teams using someone other than their designated closer to finish off the game. Here's a breakdown of what happened:
TOR @ CLE: There was no save situation here, but those of you investing a number of the closer-in-waiting prospects got punished. For Toronto, Jesse Carlson issued two walks and gave up a run while recording just one out. Brandon League was the lone bright spot, picking up the vulture win after his walk tied the game. For the Indians, Rafael Betancourt came into the game following the rain delay in the fifth inning and gave up a run in 1.2 innings work. Rafael Perez, who is owned in a ton of leagues, really took the brunt of it, giving up five runs on three hits and a walk. Masahide Kobayashi allowed one run and five more baserunners.
CHC @ MIL:Kevin Gregg blew his first save of the year, walking two in the process. Carlos Marmol got the final two outs in the seventh inning, but also walked a batter - after the game, Lou Piniella complained about the control of virtually everyone in the bullpen for that game. Brewers fill-in closer Carlos Villanueva got the save with a clean inning, Todd Coffey pitched a scoreless inning, and Seth McClung blew the original lead in the sixth inning.
NYY @ KC:Mariano Rivera converted his first save chance of the year. Brian Bruney was the reliever chosen to pitch the eighth inning and struck out two.
TB @ BAL:George Sherrill got the save but gave up a solo homer to Dioner Navarro. Jim Johnson pitched the eighth but gave up two runs. Danys Baez looked really good, striking out four in 1.2 innings. Baez or Johnson should be considered the current closers-in-waiting, not Chris Ray.
NYM @ FLA: Matt Lindstrom blew the save, allowing three sharp singles. Leo Nunez looked good before that - ignore the "BS" next to his name - he came into the game in the seventh with one out and allowed a sacrifice fly that tied the game, and the one "hit" that he allowed arguably should have been an error on Hanley Ramirez.
WAS @ ATL:Mike Gonzalez blew the save; a mitigating circumstance was Matt Diaz doing his best Lonnie Smith impersonation in left field and losing a fly ball in the lights for a double. Still, Gonzalez allowed a subsequent hit and walk to load the bases, and the comebacker that he deflected that ended up as a hit was really sharply hit anyhow. Rafael Soriano pitched a perfect eighth inning. Peter Moylan still has an ERA |STAR|and|STAR| WHIP of Infinity.
HOU @ STL: Sigh ... Jason Motte. Motte started the ninth inning, recorded one out but was yanked after allowing one hit. Kyle McClellan got the save, one day after Dennys Reyes got the save. Josh Kinney pitched the last out of the seventh and pitched the eighth, but allowed a run. This is a full-on committee right now. Hold onto Chris Perez even though he got sent to the minors - everyone is in play right now.
SEA @ OAK: Relax Brandon Morrow owners, there's no role change here. He was simply unavailable on Friday night after either pitching or warming up in the bullpen for each of the first four games. David Aardsma, once one of those trendy college closers drafted early, pitched two innings for the save. If anything, read into it that Aardsma is ahead of Miguel Batista in the pecking order ... though he probably won't be available to pitch on Saturday.
SF @ SD: No save chance, but Duaner Sanchez pitched the eighth inning before Scott Hairston's three-run homer blew the game wide open in the top of the inning. Sanchez was bailed out by a highlight-reel catch from Hairston.
BOS @ LAA: Scot Shields pitched the final four outs on Friday to get the save, protecting a three-run lead. No word was given on why Shields was used over Brian Fuentes to pitch the ninth. Fuentes blew the save on Wednesday (though there were plenty of mitigating circumstances). He threw 28 pitches in that game - a heavy but not inordinately so workload.