Street blows save as Rockies waste another good start
For a second straight game, the Colorado Rockies wasted a good outing from the starting pitcher, falling to the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 in 10 innings after start Jhoulys Chacin had allowed just one run in his 7 1/3.
The Rockies let Juan Nicasio‘s 10-strikeout performance Sunday slip away when the bullpen allowed a six-run eighth inning. On Monday, Chacin allowed six hits, walked two and struck out two, allowing just the single run on a single and a double to start the seventh. But the bullpen again gave the game back.
Chacin got the first out of the eighth and was pulled after a one-out single. Relievers Matt Reynolds allowed a single, but he and Rafael Betancourt were able to pitch out of trouble. The real problems began in the ninth.
Closer Huston Street got the first two outs of the inning, but then allowed a double to Carlos Ruiz. Street put pinch-hitter Mayberry in a 1-2 hole but couldn’t get him to bite on a series of sliders low and away before he left one up and Mayberry hit a game-tying home run.
In the 10th, Rex Brothers allowed a leadoff home run to Shane Victorino that turned out to be the game-winner.
The Rockies scored all three of their runs courtesy a pair of home runs — a two-run shot in by Seth Smith in the second and a solo homer by Chris Iannetta in the seventh. But they had several excellent opportunities to add on but were unable to do so.
In the fourth, two-out singles by Ty Wigginton and Chris Nelson put runners at the corners, but Smith grounded out to end the inning. In the fifth inning, singles by Chacin and Eric Young Jr. and a walk to Dexter Fowler loaded the bases with one out. But Mark Ellis struck out on three pitches and Troy Tulowitzki stuck out after an eight-pitch at-bat. Finally in the ninth with the game tied 3-3, Smith led off with a single and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by Iannetta. But he was left there after groundouts by Jonathan Herrera and Ryan Spilborghs.
Just wonderful how many hrs by Street 10. Beautiful he really bares down on the first 2 hitters then goes into la la land.. And how about the future closer….
Great pitching effort from Chacin.
1-17 from the 1 through 4 spots.
Rotten effort to close the game by the offense.
Huston Street is not earning his paycheck.
Management isn’t motivating this team to win.
New leaders are not emerging for this team.
Past leaders are nowhere to be seen.
I am so tired of Street, he needs to ride the pine or be let go to see if anyone would pick him up in the waiver wire trade.
I wonder if Street’s blown save count will finally go up by one. He has been sitting at 2 blown saves all year, >90% efficiency, which can’t be right. I think there must be narrow rules for what constitutes a blown save.
LOL. No questions for Jim Tracy from the media. Even the media has nothing to say!
As DOD said Saturday, there are survivors, contributors & winners, this staff & players far outweigh the survivors category, we do have 2 or 3 contributors, & maybe 1 or 2 winners, that does not make a winning team, but this is painfully obvious. This team has far to many survivors to be successfull!!
Did anyone here not know for a fact that Street would puke up the save? It’s getting equally dis-appointing that the heir apparent, Brothers, isn’t getting it done too.
Rocky, I did not know for sure, but I was not surprised. After the double I thought, oh oh, a home run ties it….
what the heck was mark ellis doing in the 3-h
ole ?? just a terrible decision by tracy. cost us the game, along with street’s predictable blunder
Knew when we left bases loaded with no ball in play it would come back to haunt us.Best way to beat ROX-walk the ist 3 guys each inning,then watch the next 3 strike out/pop-up/or hit into DP.I stopped watching as soon as Mayberry came up.Never switched back,knew we were done.Absolutely personifies the entire season-and it sucks!
What Gary said.
IBB the first 3 Rockies every inning and you have a sure no-hitter.
The bullpen is making sure the Rockies will not contend this season. Just think, if the bullpen is solid the last two games this is the 6th win in a row and 8 back of first. Instead, crapoooola!
It will never happen because Street makes too much money to not be the closer, however I would begin to use the closer by committee approach until one of them (Brothers, Lindstrom or Street) claims the job with some solid performances.
J Tracy you are killing me with the “… I have absolutely no problem with the effort and the way we played hard out there tonight…” This managerial song is getting so old – it just makes me sick.
Too bad we couldnt get a closer before the trade deadline since we dont have one. Need to make plans now for who the closer is going to be because Street has had his chances and blown them. This team quit a long time ago and is going thru the motions now and playing out the season.
Can’t agree more with all of you. I also felt the game was lost when Ellis and Tulo didn’t perform. I was sitting there saying out loud head down, eye on ball, controlled swing. Never happened. I have been a Street fan since his rookie year. I have to agree with you all, he is not a great closer. He is good, but so was Chacon, Jose Jimenez, Bruce Ruffin, etc, etc. We have had good closers, we need a great one.
When I saw the line-up I thought this is dumb. What DOD needs to do is clean some house, use the money saved to get a legit #4 hitter, move Tulo to #2 or #3, fix this bullpen, and get a 3B. And I really think that Dex could have hustled more in the 5th or 6th to catch that ball that he stopped running on that barely made the track. Sorry for the rant and length, but I’m pissed.
The above anonymous was me
Pre-game yesterday I blogged that while I feel Street is a a great person, I believe he among the worst closers in all of baseball. We hear the annnouncers continually lauding his saves vs. save opportunities percentage, but this is a very overrated stat. Though a small sample space, note that Wed. vs L.A. and Fri. vs. S.d. he received two saves in two oppportunities while facing 8 hitters and allowing 1 HR and 1 double (thus, 1.000 OPS against and .750 slugging against). The disaster in the 09 NLDS vs. Phils was not a fluke, nor was last nights fiasco. Ultimately, most closers with 20 plus save opps. will have equal or better save percentages and total saves. Street I am sure is at or near the bottom in OPS against and slugging against and in lower half in ERA. The saves vs. saves opps stat is vastly overrated. With a 3.00era a closer should have a .66% save percent allowing for 3 outs and only a 1 run lead. Since many saves are less than 3 outs, and many ther times more than a one run cushion, that stat is misleading. Street is a great gentleman and it is painful to say these things, but as we keep hearing, baseball is a business. Let’s keeps him as maybe an adequate middle reliever. He is not a world seeries caliber closer. I am interested in other viewpoints as I am known frequently to speak out of emotion and not fairness, as the great Tracy Ringolsby cautioned after the Ubaldo trade.
I was at the game and my summary is that it is exactly like the season: we did just enough to lose. Really a good baseball game, with a lousy result. We were one swing away with the bases loaded from blowing the game open; we were one pitch away from winning the game; we were one hit in the 9th from winning the game. But none of those things happened. Just like the season, we lost. This team is the anti-2007 squad: it’s full of coulda, woulda, shoulda players and plays.
Kline Gowen, how is save percentage an overrated stat??? Isn’t that the only job of a closer? To get the save? Street is probably the best closer the Rockies have ever had.
Closers are going to blow saves, no question about it. It just seems that when Street messes up it is a huge deflater for the team. He personally seems to waste more strong starting pitching performances than anybody I know. While his save percentage is really good, 28 of 31 I think, he is constantly living on the edge. Much like Fuentes did. It has been about 6 years now of constant stress watching Rockies close ballgames with Fuentes followed by Street. Everybody off the Mark Ellis bandwagon now? I would rather see EY at 2B than Ellis at this point. I am not sure Ellis is worth even keeping around next year as he really only plays one position. Nelson can play at least 3 and I know I feel much more hopeful when he is at the plate than Ellis.
1) Rex Brothers is NO WHERE close to being “THE” closer. I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and understand where he is with his develpoment. He is still very much a work in progress.
2) Agreed, I was also surprised to see Mark Ellis hitting 3rd especially considering his current drought. I thought he did better hitting #2.
3) I guess I was one of those guys that did not know for a fact that Street would puke up the save. Mayberry did exactly what every one of us wants from the Rockies. Battle the pitcher and hopefully win. Street threw a poorly located slider. Yes I am defending him. Yes this is only his 3rd blown save. He has a reasonable kk/b and whip. His problem this season is simple. 10 home runs. 10! Not something you want to see out of your closer.
4) If the Rockies hitters had battled Hammels in the 5th inning the way Mayberry did then maybe we would be much happier today. Then again I would not have had Ellis hitter 3rd. Bases loaded, 1 out with the 3 and 4 guys coming up. Nothing to show for it. Nothing.
Hey all, long time lurker here, haven’t posted in a long time, but thought this was interesting and I apologize if this is obvious to you all. Didn’t realize at the time Street threw 8 straight sliders to Mayberry (have to give the Purple Row folks credit for that info). How about changing it up a bit? Even if that’s his best pitch, do you want to mix it up–by the way…I’m far from a pitching coach here so I don’t mean to back seat drive..but REALLY? I like Street a lot, but I was in the “wouldn’t be surprised if he blows this one” and also agree with the person who said that he seems to really focus on the first 2 outs, then seems to ease off the pedal a bit and try to cruise home.
Frustrating…but I’ll be tuning in again tonight.
GO ROCKIES!
Lost in all this is the non-move that Tracy did not make and should have. He subbed Spilly into left for EY for defense in the 7th or 8th, but failed to sub our best fielding 3rd baseman Stewart into the game. There was a ball hit in the 7th or 8th between Tulo and Nelson that Stewart may have gotten to. And then in the 9th I believe Stewart may have gloved that double by Ruiz. Tracy was asked on KOA this morning why Nelson was playing even with the back at 3rd with two out. And in his usual way said that there was no way Nelson could have gotten to that ball even if he was playing deeper and you have to guard against the bunt.
He’s wrong on a number of counts. Carlos Ruiz would not bunt. I’m 66 years and faster than him. A real 3rd baseman playing deeper and guarding the line would have had a chance to glove and thrown Ruiz out. Instead we had a guy who usually plays 2nd playing even with the bag and he couldn’t come up with. A) Tracy should have put his best defensive 3rd baseman in the game in the 9th an B) Dauer, who I believes positions the infielders, should have had the 3B guarding the line and playing deeper. Maybe Nelson doesn’t have the arm to throw from deep 3rd to get Ruiz, but Stewart certainly does.
Tracy won’t criticize his coaches or himself although he certainly has no qualms in throwing his players under the bus. He called out his #3 and #4 hitters for not getting runs in with the bases loaded and one out. And he’s right, they should have. Ellis especially because a fly ball would probably have done the trick. But Ellis is not a #3 hitter. And while Tulo struck out he did work the count and hit at least one ball very hard. I believe Ellis struck out on 3 pitches.
I have not been a big believer in the Saves/Save Opportunities statistic. I think Street’s 90% save efficiency is inflated.
So I went on baseballreference.com and went through Street’s 50 appearances one by one with the criterion, Did Street Do His Job? Obviously the 28 saves count, as does his 1 win and a number of holds (sometimes in laughers in which he was not credited with save or hold). I also counted the nail biters in which he allowed runs but ended up with the save or the Rockies held on to win, except for the April game in NYM when Lindstrom had to come in after Street to save it.
I ended up with a 42-8 breakdown, roughly 80% efficiency, for 50 appearances.
I’ll go with my gut over statistics: Street this year is as good as Fuentes was at his best. And Street has been better before and may be better next year. Despite last night’s game, closer is not a problem with this team, it’s offensive production from every position player except Helton.
Looking at the Phillies (who are obviously the gold standard) from 1 – 8 they have hitters who are better than the Rockies. Only Helton would be a distinct improvement over their lineup. Then they go to their bench and have productive players who can hit game-tying home runs. The Rockies can run out a .215 hitting Spilbourghs or a .256 hitting Herrara (with no power).
Remember that CarGo and Giambi are on the DL, and apparently Todd’s back was bothering him yesterday. But your point is well taken Colorado Thistle.
I was actually pleasantly surprised going through Street’s results. He has the 3-4 BS and 3 L’s that we all remember, and the near BS at NYM, but otherwise he looks pretty good on paper. 84% efficiency isn’t horrible.
I agree that saves/save % is a misleading stat. Sort of like batting average or a starting pitcher’s W-L record, it counts for something, but provides a very incomplete picture the overall quality of a player.
That said, even taking other measures into account, I think he’s a decent closer. He gives up some hits, but issues very view walks, strikes people out a good clip, etc. He’s not elite, and I don’t think he’s worth $7M/year, but I think he’s better than average, and better than Fuentes was.
His big problem this year has been the big hit. As in the biggest hit. As in the home run. He’s given up WAY too many of those. I don’t know if that’s cause his skill is in decline, or if it’s just bad luck, but in any case, that’s killing him (and us). And in terms of perception, that makes him seem even worse than he is because those late-game homers are so dramatic, so memorable, so deflating, and something that gets us all thoroughly pissed off.
And along those lines, just in general, it’s easy to hate closers because we rarely notice them or compliment them when they “do thier job.” It’s when they blow one that they get noticed. It’s a pretty thankless job. I’d be curious to see if anyone’s ever taken a poll of baseball fans across the leauge asking them if they thought thier closer was “above average” or “below average.” Binary choice; one or the other. Theoretically, you should get the fan-bases of 15 teams to say “above” and 15 teams to say “below.” But I suspect you’d get far less than 15 closers who’s fans think they’re better than average. Most fans (other than the spolied ones in New York) think thier closers either suck, are too nerve-raking, unproven, unreliable, and so on.
It’s ok to want to get rid of Street – personally, I was really hoping he’d be traded at the deadline (if nothing else, to get rid of his salary) – but like someone else said earlier, Street is NOT our problem this year.
Street is an okay closer, but he’s not elite. He kinda reminds me of Borowski with Cleveland a few years back. He’ll put up good numbers during the season, but in the playoffs, I’m not real confident in him. He just doesn’t have lights-out stuff. He sort of relies on smoke-and-mirrors, meaning he has a very small margin for error, and good hitters will take advantage of that.
As for the question about pitch selection, that is a very valid point. I remember hearing that you’re not supposed to throw the same pitch three time in a row because the hitter gets good reads on it. When people would describe how good Trevor Hoffman’s changeup was, I’d often hear them say it was so good that he could throw it three or four times in a row. Street’s slider isn’t in that category, and even if it was the best slider in history, you don’t throw it EIGHT times in a row! Mix it up! Throw a borderline fastball or changeup just to give Mayberry a different look and make him think, then come back to it.
As frustrating as that was, Street didn’t lose the game. It was the offense that lost it by not producing with chances. I’m with you guys, when I heard Ellis come up to bat in the first, my first thought was, “What the he**? Ellis is our three-hole hitter?!”
Suggestion: if it’s closing situation and the opponent is the Phillies go with a different closer. Phillies own Street in the same fashion when the Rockies owned Trevor Hoffmann.
I can’t think of another closer who has decent stats but inspires so little confidence. Even when he does get the save it seems like the tying run is always on 3rd and the go ahead on 2nd. The Rockies should have dumped him last week, even if they couldn’t get much for him it would have been addition by subtraction.
Dear EGOSSAGE: Your point is well taken and seemingly valid, but certainly it seems that if you take two guys with similar save percentages, and one, like Street, is among the worst in OPS against and Slugging against and allows HRs at an alarming rate, then the likelihood of someone like him failing against eliete teams as did Street in the 09 NLDS is much greater than someone with better overall pitching stats. And do not forget, save percent does not reflect losing games when brought in with a tie, and a HR will sure do that for you, and also manager usage patterns can effect save percentages as well. But yes, that is his primary job, and in that respect he has performed reasonably well, Sir.
I don’t have a stance in the argument but would like to say, “BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!” KlineG. 1 Egossage 0
Street blah blah blah … we all have our opinions. Since someone brought up the fact that he threw 8 sliders in a row I think it’s only fair we give a shout out to Iannetta. He’s behind the plate calling the pitches mostly with some encouragement from the bench.
I’ll say 1 positive thing for Street that I like. IMO he’s one of the best fielding pitchers in the league. If he was a starter I think he would be Gold Glove material.
i was at the game last night and all I can say is that that was a great at bat by Mayberry, i just hate seen how Phillies fans takeover Coors… people everyone need to yell louder in the game… in the eight inning a Phills fan started running down the stairs in section 143-144 cheering for his team, and no one close by even tough about shutting him up… they just laugh… if we want our players to be better we need to be better, i would like to see if a Boston on Tampa fan did the same thing on yanked stadium.
“i would like to see if a Boston on Tampa fan did the same thing on yanked stadium” ???
I can tell you it has been WAY worse in the Trop than it was in Coors last night. Especially when the Red Sox are in town. They are pretty vocal.
Like you I was also surprised on a couple of occasions how loud the Phillies fans were. Especially when they were booing throws to 1st or when Iannetta went to the mound. They were WAY louder than us. Luckily were I sit there are minimal other team fans, if any. If we did that in Phillie we would probably get beer dumped on us or worse.
Yes, there is a lot of argument about Street. Lets be clear, he is a big league reliever. We are not talking about a guy who should be in the minors or simply stinks. The question is whether or not he is a big league closer for a team with playoff aperations. Everyone is going to blow saves, save for the rare season where a guy goes 41-41. Wilson has blown a few this year, but his stuff and mentality raises no issues. Plus he will do and give you a 4-6 out save if you need it.
Street has a very good (top 20%) slider. That is a very good pitch, with nice tilt to it. His fastball…is not fast enough and tends to not change planes at all (that is why Ianetta did 8 straight, becuase Mayberry would catch up the fastball even while looking for the slider, so you might as well go with your best). When his slider misses is misses over the middle of the plate. Last year’s blow save in Pitt, the 3 run shot to Alverez after Todd had put the Rox ahead with his two run shot, sucked the wind out of the team and made the rest of the season a true uphill challenge. That is one of the big things with Street, it seems his blow saves tend to be in games that cost more than average (after a comeback, after a great pitching performance, in a game to end a losing streak).
The guys on Root rightly point out that Street has the mindset to be a closer. A lot of guys have closer stuff but not closer mentality (like Rafeal Betencourt). They struggle with the pressure and the fact that guys coming up are specifically targeted for you and your stuff. Street has 9th inning mentality…but not 9th inning stuff. His mentality allows him to get the great number of saves he gets.
Rex has closer stuff. So does Lindstrom (who you all know I am not a big fan of, and was hoping to get him dealt for some talent). Lindstrom’s mentality has been questioned in FL and Houston. They idea has been his fear of failure is why he gives so many walks. As for Rex, we have to remember that what, two years ago, he was pitching against college players. He has made a lot of progress really quickly. If you dont need him to close you want him to learn right now. Think Mo in 1996 or KRod in 2002. We will see if Rex has closer mentality…in due course. Probably next year I am betting. But when we signed Street to the three year deal we didn’t have an obvious closer replacement, so he has been what we have. I think it is time to see if Lindstrom can take over the job the rest of the season and see if Street can make himself into a quality 8th innning guy (hey, Adams just returned two talented prospects as an 8th inning guy). Then lets see what Rex does next spring and see if he can take the job, for less pay and ultimately for a long-term solution.
But yes, when Street came out last night I just had this feeling that the game was going to get tied. However, I was suprised by Brothers’ breakdown. Then again, remember guys, that Shane Victorino is a AS level player who is talented in his own right. Said it before, but sometimes the bear get you, sometimes you get the bear.