Beleaguered bullpen
ATLANTA – The Atlanta Braves have been through this before: the late leads, the blown saves, the desperate struggle to strike a little ninth-inning fear.
Excluding those years when John Smoltz was finishing games instead of starting them, the Braves have often struggled to get the final three outs – even while winning 13 straight division titles.
It’s happening again.
Dan Kolb was acquired from Milwaukee to be the closer, but he lost the job less than two months into the season. Chris Reitsma assumed the role – basically by default – and seemed to have locked it down with eight saves and two wins over a 10-game stretch.
But, heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Reitsma had blown three saves in eight games and rekindled memories of all those years when the Braves flailed around in search of a closer.
“It’s been good, it’s been so-so and lately it hasn’t been great, that’s for sure,” manager Bobby Cox said Wednesday before a 10-2 victory over the Dodgers in which the bullpen wasn’t a factor.
He plans to stick with Reitsma, though the right-hander’s grasp on the job is clearly a lot less secure than it was a week ago. Not that the first-place Braves have a lot of options.
They could go back to Kolb, who is booed by the home fans every time he steps on the field. They could turn to trade-deadline acquisition Kyle Farnsworth, but he’s bothered by a bad back and hasn’t been effective since joining the Braves. They might even give a look to Joey Devine, a first-round pick in the June draft who had five saves and 26 strikeouts in his first 19 innings for Double-A Mississippi.
“We’ve given Kolb a crack at it, Reitsma a crack at it, and of course, Farnsworth was closing in Detroit,” Cox said on his pre-game radio show. “We’ll get it worked out. I still think Reits can do it.”
The Braves’ entire bullpen has been a weakness this season.
In addition to converting only 28 of 43 save chances, the relievers are a cumulative 18-20 with a 4.58 ERA. They have given up 341 hits and 146 walks in 318 1/3 innings, while retiring just 60 percent of the first hitters faced.
It all has a familiar ring.
The Braves went through a closer a season while winning the first five division titles in their streak. Juan Berenguer. Alejandro Pena. Mike Stanton. Greg McMichael. Finally, Mark Wohlers, who got the final out of the 1995 World Series.
But Wohlers gave up a crucial home run in the 1996 Series – a six-game loss to the New York Yankees – and then endured a baffling loss of control.
The Braves moved on to Kerry Ligtenberg, a one-year wonder. John Rocker had a dominant season, only to get run out of Atlanta when he couldn’t stop running his mouth. In desperation, the Braves turned to Smoltz, who had been through a series of elbow problems and saw the bullpen as a way to preserve his health.
Smoltz quickly became one of baseball’s best at preserving a lead, putting up 144 saves over the last three years. Still, he yearned to get back in the rotation, where he spent most of his career.
The Braves were able to appease Smoltz by trading for Kolb, who had 60 saves for the lowly Brewers the last two years. The right-hander has yet to show that form in Atlanta, getting banished to middle relief in mid-May to work on his control problems.
Reitsma was 3-4 with a 4.04 ERA. He had converted 15 save chances but wasted seven others, an unacceptable success rate for a team with the Braves’ aspirations.
The Braves hope to turn up a reliable closer by the playoffs. Otherwise, it could be another short October for a team that’s been a first-round casualty three years running.