Craig Kimbrel's Results In Non-Save Situations Reach Staggering New Low
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Trailing 3-2 in a game that the Red Sox wanted to win, manager John Farrell made the smart call to go with his best pitcher -- the recently named AL all-star -- in the top of the ninth.
Yet as he has done many times in non-save situation this year, Craig Kimbrel flopped. Spectacularly.
He led off the inning with a five-pitch walk and then allowed back-to-back singles from Rougned Odor and Jurickson Profar. Kimbrel then served up a spectacular moon shot to Robinson Chirinos that might still be climbing through the night sky.
Chirinos is hitting .215 on the year.
Kimbrel called it "probably one of the worst outings of my career," and he was right. He allowed four runs without recording one out. The Sox lost their chance for a ninth-inning rally.
"Little disappointing here," Farrell understated after the 7-2 loss, "given that we stayed in this game, David [Price] did a very good job through the eight innings of work, and it got away from us late."
Logically, it makes sense for a manager to call upon his best arm in situations when crucial outs are needed, no matter what the exact game situation may be. But with Kimbrel, Farrell is now going to have to weigh heavily whether or not the pitcher is walking into a save situation.
Consider the stats:
In save situations: Kimbrel has a 1.45 ERA and a 0.643 WHIP. Opponents hit .143 with a .432 OPS against him. He owns a 9.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
In non-save situations: Kimbrel has a 6.75 ERA and a 1.650 WHIP. Opponents hit .231 with a .730 OPS against him. He owns a 2.10 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The sample sizes are comparable, too, as he's faced 67 batters in save situations and 63 batters in non-save situations.
It's now become noticeable in his career numbers, too. In 269 save situations, he owns a 1.49 ERA and 0.783 WHIP. In 119 non-save situations, he owns a 2.51 ERA and 1.299 WHIP.
Again, logically, this should not be the case; pitching is pitching. And while there's no substitute for the combination of adrenaline and supreme focus that a closer uses to get amped up to close out victories, the talent alone should be enough to generate much more positive results.
Yet for Kimbrel, that hasn't been the case, and Farrell now has to consider a new complexity when making his calls to the bullpen.
"Overall, yes," Farrell said when asked if he'll need to reconsider inserting Kimbrel into non-save situations. Farrell defended his decision by saying he's aware of the numbers but had to go with the freshest arm in his bullpen.
Still, the manager seemingly rejected the notion that the disparity in numbers is merely coincidental.
"I don't know that you'd say it's a fluke if you look at the few times that he's come into that spot, but given where we are with the bullpen and given where we were in the lineup coming, that was the decision made," Farrell said. "What's a little perplexing is the leadoff walks."
The walks are certainly among the most eye-popping discrepancies in the save/non-save splits. In save situations, he's walked just three of the 67 batters he's faced, or 4.5 percent. In non-save situations, he's walked 10 of the 63 batters he's faced, or 15.9 percent.
Farrell said that the batter's aggression plays a factor, but "still, you're looking at upper 90s type stuff."
Overall, it's a perplexing situation for Farrell to be in. The next time he finds his team desperately needing three outs to remain in a close game, he may have to defy logic by making the second-best option available to him.
"I can't say it's a lack of adrenaline, because even in tonight's situation, we're in a one-run ballgame, and you could say that the game was still on the line," said Farrell, who also noted, "In 12 pitches, a lot happened."
That it did, and the decision about when to utilize the next 12 pitches from the Red Sox' all-star closer just became that much more complicated.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
