Welcome back to the latest edition of our Reliever Ranks series! This will bring you up-to-date bullpen depth charts every morning for the day’s games and makes for an excellent tool for those looking to stream saves or wins. This series runs seven days a week, so check in every morning to get your daily bullpen fix!
Notes
Transaction and Schedule Notes
- There were a whopping 17 baseball games on Tuesday, with BOS, NYY, KCR, and CHW all playing doubleheaders. On top of that, we had 2 games go to extra innings. Mix in that today is getaway day, meaning we have several day games following the overflowing night schedule, and you have a recipe for a lot of spent bullpens.
- The Reds designated Chasen Shreve for assignment to make room for Brandon Williamson to be activated.
- Jonathan Loáisiga was placed on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation, most likely ending his season. Wandy Peralta should slide up into his setup role, with Tommy Kahnle mixing in. The Yankees also claimed Luke Weaver from the Mariners to add some depth to their depleted pitching corps.
- Baltimore optioned Joey Krehbiel to AAA in order to activate John Means for his start.
Yesterday’s Performances
STL 5 – BAL 2
HD: Giovanny Gallegos (18), Matthew Liberatore (1), John King (8)
SV: Ryan Helsley (9)
- How much pressure must there have been on this St. Louis bullpen not to blow it after Adam Wainwright delivered a game worthy of win, albeit an ugly one? Whatever the pressure, The Cards bullpen was able to deliver, going the distance of 4 scoreless innings with 4 relievers to secure win number 199 for Wainwright. Giovanny Gallegos got the ball rolling in the 6th, passing it off to Matthew Liberatore to close out the inning and take the 7th for himself (which secured Liberatore his first career Hold). From there, John King played the role of Andre Pallante, who had pitched in 2 straight, before it was once again time for Ryan Helsley to close things out for his 9th save of the season.
- John Means returned to action after a lengthy IL stint following Tommy John and pitched admirably enough, allowing 3 runs in his 5 innings of work. But 3 runs were all the Cardinals needed to win, although Jorge López did spot them another 2 runs in his 1.2 innings of work, needing Cionel Pérez to bail him out for the final out of the 7th. Cole Irvin finished out the night with 2 scoreless innings.
TEX 6 – TOR 3
HD: Jose Leclerc (5), Chris Stratton (8)
SV: None
- Unfortunately for Aroldis Chapman and his fantasy managers everywhere, you can’t put yourself into your own save situation by allowing runs. It’s just bad business. It would be nice if the bullpen for the Rangers could just stop allowing runs and just be normal. With the way things have gone, I want to say Chapman keeps getting the saves, but I would not be surprised at all to see the next opportunity go to Will Smith. Hold Chapman for now, keep an eye on Smith. Unfortunately, Texas is too good for us to ignore.
- Toronto sent out everyone who hadn’t pitched in a few days, with the exception of Yimi García, who coughed up 2 runs on 2 hits in 2 thirds of an inning. Erik Swanson did return to action with a perfect inning in the 8th. He should be a valuable source of holds down the stretch, having 28 on the season already despite spending time on the IL.
NYY 3 – BOS 2 (Game 1)
HD: Tommy Kahnle (14), Wandy Peralta (18)
SV: Clay Holmes (19)
- The Yankees deployed a sort of double-opener / neither-starter-is-fully stretched-out-so-we’ll-let them-both-pitch maneuver, utilizing Randy Vásquez for 3.2 innings, and Jhony Brito for 2.1 innings before giving way to late innings guys. Tommy Kahnle handled the 7th and Wandy Peralta the 8th ahead of Clay Holmes, who locked down his 19th save of the season. Peralta seems to have taken the recently injured Jonathan Loáisiga’s 8th inning job.
- Everything was cruising for the Red Sox and Nick Pivetta for the first 5 innings before bad things began to pile up. Pivetta had tallied 1o strikeouts through 5 innings with a no hitter… if you don’t count Kyle Higashioka’s 2 knocks, before eventually surrendering all 3 runs the Yankees would score. Mauricio Llovera and John Schreiber provided some valuable scoreless innings in a 1 run game, but the Sox were never able to capitalize.
NYY 4 – BOS 3 (Game 2)
HD: Zach McAllister (1), Anthony Misiewicz (1), Matt Bowman (1)
SV: Nick Ramirez (1)
- After playing the hits in Game 1, the Yankees relied on their B-side relievers to close out Game 2 of the doubleheader. Zach McAllister, Anthony Misiewicz, and Matt Bowman all recorded their first hold of the season and all 3 were in AAA days ago. For the save, it was Nick Ramirez. The reliever factory rolls on.
- Kenley Jansen came out for the 9th inning, needing some work after not pitching for 6 days. However, he quickly ran into trouble allowing both of the hitters he faced to reach before being pulled due to “fatigue and illness symptoms“. Chris Martin, who threw the 8th ahead of Jansen, would be the likely replacement should Jansen need any time off (which seems very likely).
MIL 3 – MIA 1
HD: Hoby Milner (16), Abner Uribe (5)
SV: Devin Williams (33)
- Milwaukee got an excellent start from Freddy Peralta, who went 6.1 innings of 1 run ball, striking out 9 batters. Their excellent bullpen were nearly flawless the rest of the way, with Hoby Milner and Abner Uribe securing holds ahead of Devin Williams, who was able to notch his 33rd save of the season with a perfect inning. Always a good sign when you can turn to 3 relievers who all have ERAs under 2.00
- JT Chargois was the opener for Miami, doing his job by not allowing any runs. Chargois turned it over to Edward Cabrera for the bulk of the work and he decided he was going to walk about 30% of the batters he faced much to the chagrin of managers who thought they had a sneaky stream (except of course for those in QS leagues who shook their fist at the opener).
CIN 6 – DET 5 (10)
HD: None
SV: Buck Farmer (3)
- Brandon Williamson could only go 4 innings, allowing 5 runs in his return from the COVID-IL, so Cincinnati turned to their bullpen and were rewarded with 6 scoreless innings. Alexis Díaz came away with his 9th win, and Buck Farmer got his 3rd save in the 10th inning, with matching 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K lines from Diaz and Farmer.
- Detroit faced a similar, but worse, problem with Joey Wentz also allowing 5 runs, but in only 2.2 innings of work. So The Tigers pen responded by throwing 7 scoreless innings of relief. Unfortunately, Alex Lange took the loss in the 10th after he coughed up a run on a Tyler Stephenson single that scored the ghost runner from second.
ATL 7 – PHI 6 (10)
HD: A.J. Minter (19)
SV: Brad Hand (1)
- Raisel Iglesias served up a home run to unreal Trea Turner in the 9th for his 4th blown save of the season. Brad Hand got the save chance in the bottom of the 10th after Atlanta went ahead, and he was able to close things out with a perfect inning for his 1st save on the season. This was the 6th team that Hand has recorded a save for in his career (out of the 9 teams he’s played for).
- José Alvarado threw a clean 9th inning to bounce back from his loss the previous day. After the game went to extras, Craig Kimbrel got the shot at closing things out, but was unable to keep Atlanta off the board, allowing the Manfred man to score on a single from Eddie Rosario. On one hand, it didn’t hurt his ERA… on the other hand, his team lost, and on the other, other hand, Hand got the save.
CLE 3 – SFG 1
HD: Reynaldo López (17), Trevor Stephan (26)
SV: Emmanuel Clase (40)
- It feels like Emmanuel Clase just keeps repeating the same pattern. Blow a save, then come back in a day or 2 and throw a scoreless inning to secure a save. Rinse, repeat. This latest save puts Clase at 40 on the season, and I’m not sure there is a better source of holds and saves in the league than Cleveland.
- Wait… San Francisco actually used a starter in Sean Manaea and then every single one of the relievers they normally use for opening pitched in relief of a starter?! Madness.
The best of the rest
- Maybe Gregory Santos saw that everyone was losing faith in him, so he delivered 1.1 perfect innings with 2 strikeouts for his 5th save of the season. Meanwhile, Bryan Shaw pitched the 6th and 7th for his 3rd hold.
- In the second game of the KCR/CHW doubleheader, it was Carlos Hernández turn at vindication. Maybe Santos and Hernandez both read this week’s Closing Time and felt slighted. Although unlike Santos, Hernandez allowed a run in his appearance. There really are a lot better options elsewhere.
- Last week it seemed like Tyler Kinley was taking over the closer duties in Colorado with 2 saves in 3 days. Flas forward to this week, and 1 blown save later, and it was Justin Lawrence who came out for the 9th and got the save.
- Jhoan Duran continued to help Minnesota hold down their Central division lead with his 26th save of the season.
- Save situations had been pretty elusive for the Mets since the trade deadline, but Adam Ottavino was able to get his 3rd save in 10 days with 1.2 perfect innings.
Bullpen Depth Charts
The Hold Up: Ranking the Top 100 Relievers for Holds Every Thursday
Closing Time: Ranking the Top 30 Closers
Top 100 Relievers for Save+Hold Leagues
(Photos by Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Doug Carlin (@Bdougals on Twitter)