MVN - Most Valuable Network

Why is it that closers can’t focus in non-save situations?

On Saturday afternoon, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 9-5 had to hang on–barely.

Starter John Parrish, making his season debut thanks to Shaun Marcum’s injury, did the job with six innings of four-hit ball, turning a 6-1 lead over to the bullpen.

Jays reliever Brian Tallet, however, imploded and gave up four runs in the eighth, including Mark Teixeira’s 16th home run, trimming Toronto’s lead to just 6-5.

The Jays added three runs, capped off by Vernon Wells’ two-run double, in the eighth, and seemingly were in control.

And B.J. Ryan came on in the ninth to close things out, but not before incident.

With a comfortable four-run lead (which is not a save situation), Ryan gave up two hits, and almost another one, which would have made things more interesting than necessary.

With two men on, the Braves’ Ruben Gotay drove a Ryan offering down the right-field line, which if fair, would have scored two runs to bring the tying run to the plate.

And the potential tying run would have been pinch-hitter Chipper Jones, who leads the majors with a .394 mark and is tied with Teixeira for the team lead with 16 dingers.

And then, Teixeira, who had six homers in his last six games, including two in this series already, would have been up.

But luckily for Ryan and the Jays, Gotay’s drive to right landed just foul, by inches, and Gotay then grounded out to short to end the game.

It was, however, that close to being a much more uncomfortable finish for the Blue Jays.

So why is it that closers can’t nail down the last three outs with ease in these non-save situations?

Does anyone out there care to share their thoughts on this?

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Brian Tallet, Shaun Marcum, BJ Ryan, John Parrish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.