Red Sox Strut: Mitch Moreland catches fire, Craig Kimbrel throws fire
By Sean Penney
Pitcher who gets to Strut
In a week that the Red Sox pitching staff would like to forget, at least we can still count on Craig Kimbrel.
The fire-breathing closer picked up a pair of saves last week, tossing 2 1/3 scoreless innings. He didn’t allow a hit over that span, walked only one and struck out seven.
Manager John Farrell once again called on his closer for more than three outs in a game last week. Kimbrel entered with two outs in the eighth with Boston clinging to a one-run lead. He struck out Didi Gregorius on a wicked pitch that bounced out of the reach of catcher Christian Vazquez. It was ruled a wild pitch that allowed the batter to reach first base safely, despite Kimbrel being credited with a strikeout.
After walking the next batter to put the winning run on base, Kimbrel escaped the inning by striking out Chris Carter. He followed that by striking out the side in the ninth inning, giving him five strikeouts in a game where he officially only recorded four outs.
Kimbrel tied a major league record earlier this season by striking out four batters in an inning. This appearance doesn’t quite match it from a historical perspective, yet when factoring in the additional workload it may have been even more impressive.
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His 18 saves are tied for the most in the AL, which only begins to describe how dominant Kimbrel has been. His 0.98 ERA is less than half of any closer in the league with more than five saves. Only Cleveland’s Andrew Miller has a lower ERA, while Kimbrel’s 0.47 WHIP and 17.89 K/9 are the best in the league among pitchers who have thrown at least 20 innings this season.