With Vicente Padilla temporarily on the shelf with a stiff forearm on Tuesday night, the Dodgers turned to Matt Guerrier to close out their 3-0 win over the Brewers at Dodger Stadium. Guerrier retired the side in order in the ninth, including two strikeouts, becoming the fourth Dodger to get a save this season. In a bullpen full of question marks and injuries this season, Guerrier has been steady.
The Dodgers paid a hefty price for Guerrier this winter -- $12 million over three years -- but it was a wacky offseason for non-closers to get paid. Guerrier has confounded his projections, with an ERA better than his xFIP in six of his seven seasons. His career ERA (3.37) is nearly a full run better than both his FIP (4.36) and xFIP (4.34). This season, Guerrier leads the Dodger bullpen in both games (21) and innings (22 1/3), which is what you'd expect from somebody who has pitched at least 73 games in each of the last four years.
However, I hope Guerrier doesn't get another save for the Dodgers this season. It's not because I don't want him to succeed, but rather I would like Guerrier to keep up a bizarre streak. Here are the year-by-year save totals of Guerrier's career:
- 2006: one
- 2007: one
- 2008: one
- 2009: one
- 2010: one
- 2011: one
You see, if Guerrier doesn't get another save this year, that would make six straight seasons with exactly one save. Nobody in baseball history has ever had one save for that many seasons in a row.Joel Zumaya, like Guerrier, has also had exactly one save for each of the last five seasons, though Zumaya is recovering from elbow surgery and might not pitch again this season. Sure, it's an obscure stat, and ultimately meaningless, but random things like this are what make baseball cool. Here's to Guerrier sticking to his setup role for the Dodgers.
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