The save stat is meaningless partly because ANYONE should be able to hold a 3-run lead for one inning. But FAILING to do that is anything but meaningless, IMO.
K-Rod isn't a victim of the stat. He's not coming in with the tying run on 3rd and no outs, giving up a sac fly, and getting a Blown Save on his ledger. That's why I emphasized that he's earned his blown saves.
4/17 - Against a Cards lineup that hadn't scored a run in 18 innings, Frankie walked a guy, gave up a rocket, was saved from allowing one run by bad baserunning, and then, one strike from victory, threw one belt-high and away to Molina, who'd been hitting to the opposite field all night. Soft liner over second, tie game.
5/7 - Grooved a fastball to the only hot hitter in the Giants lineup for a game-tying HR.
5/12 - Got behind in the count so consistently, and threw so many fastballs when behind, that Roger Bernadina was able to take him 440 feet deep to break a 9th-inning tie.
6/2 - Threw Eckstein 2 nasty curves to get within 1 strike of victory. Decided to go with a 3rd straight curve, and made it more hittable than the previous 2. Eckstein grounded it weakly up the middle, where Frankie's stumbling follow-through didn't allow him to field it.
7/3 - Threw 27 fastballs that he had zero control over. The Nats were completely out of this game, then K-Rod handed it to them with 3 walks, and 1 out in 7 batters. Everyone has a bad day, but to not even TRY a different appoach was maddening.
7/18 - Leadoff walk to a slumping free-swinger, high fastball to Uribe (who only hits high fastballs), 2-run rally by a Giants team that had looked helpless all night.
K-Rod's had 9 1-run save opportunities this year. He's issued an unintentional walk in 6 of those. He sets himself up to fail often enough that it seems fair to blame him when he actually does fail.
Posted on August 2nd, 2010 3:32pm
