Boston’s initial plan appears to be to split closing duties between the 36-year-old Ziegler and 41-year-old Koji Uehara, the latter of whom preceded Kimbrel as Boston’s closer and has converted all three of his final-inning save chances this season, two of them coming in the last two weeks.
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The Red Sox announced at 1:42 a.m. eastern Saturday that they had acquired Arizona closer Brad Ziegler in a trade for prospects Luis Alejandro Basabe and Jose Almonte. “We don’t know what position we are going to be in this season or if we are going to be in the hunt for a wild card”.
“With no real certainty of whether we’d be able to bring (Ziegler) back on a multi-year deal we just decided that we’d be able to get some pretty good prospects for him”, Stewart said. “Honestly, this is an anomaly”, Red Sox manager John Farrell said.
He said he heard his knee pop but did not think anything serious had happened until it was evaluated and the MRI showed just what it was. He also has 18 saves this season. He pitched for parts of three seasons out of Oakland’s bullpen after making his major league debut in 2008. In 10 career appearances, spanning 10.2 innings, at Fenway Park, he has a 3.38 ERA with a 1.406 WHIP. Martinez is batting.283/.306/.383 with a home run and three RBIs in 32 games this season with the Indians. For the year, Archer’s ERA is 4.66.
RHP Junichi Tazawa (shoulder tightness) is day to day and won’t play pitch until after the All-Star break but isn’t expected to land on the disabled list. The Red Sox, on the other hand, are two games from the top of the division at 48-38 and own the top wild card spot.
After Holt left the game with a sprained left ankle, Hanley Ramirez exited in the eighth with left shin contusion after fouling a ball off his leg. He was hurt during BP before Friday’s game against the Rays. He finished his at-bat, a strikeout, and was replaced by Travis Shaw, who didn’t start because he fouled a ball off his left foot on Wednesday night. Outfielders Blake Swihart and Chris Young are on the DL, along with infielder Josh Rutledge.
Dombrowski will also be looking to improve his rotation. Perhaps a package including Eduardo Rodriguez and one of Benintendi or Moncada could get the A’s talking, but I find it extremely unlikely that Gray is moved. “On days when he isn’t available, we’ve got Brad to turn to”. It’s not an easy starting pitching market out there.
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And, at what cost? Similar teams like the Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays, and Texas Rangers all have the pop and pitching to take a series against the Red Sox. “We really like his arm slot, his contrast of style, a side-armer that has been very hard on right-handed hitters, which when you look at our division as we go forward, there’s some predominantly right-handed hitting lineups”.
