The Rays beat the Blue Jays last night 9-2, and Erasmo Ramirez got his first save of the season. You might think, "how the heck do you get a save in a 9-2 game?", and it's a good reminder of why the "save" state is a fairly silly one.
Basically, Erasmo came in while it was still a 5-2 game, and he finished the game, so all the extra runs don't count against the fact that he "closed" a game he entered while it was still within the 3 runs needed to qualify for a save.
Silly stat aside, Erasmo Ramirez certainly earned something, because he flashed what looked like early season bullpen Erasmo, pitching 3 perfect innings against a team with guys that hit the ball really, really far.
Links:
- With another game in the books for Brad Miller, you can check out Bill Chastain's write up about Miller's first game as the Rays new 1B.
- Bill Chastain also writes about how Mikie Mahtook is looking to regain his 2015 September swing and confidence.
- Russell A. Carleton on Baseball Prospectus dives into the data on whether players learning new positions and being more multi-positional has any negative affect on the hitter offense. Encouraging results for Rays fans hoping Brad Miller can keep mashing, no matter what glove he wears.
- Shane Tourtellotte on The Hardball Times has a pretty neat read on late inning situations in no-hitters.
- Prince Fielder has apparently called it a career, retiring due to medical reasons after another surgery on his neck. Prince followed in his father Cecil's footprints, a big man with a big swing and some really big bombs out of stadiums. If Prince's career is truly over, he will end on a very weird and super coincidental HR total:
Career HRs:
— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) August 9, 2016
Prince Fielder - 319
Cecil Fielder - 319https://t.co/V1StkdYu4C pic.twitter.com/SfgnVVe2XK
- The Daily Dish is running a survey of fan's confidence in their team's front office. If you haven't done it yet, I encourage you to fill it out and have your say.