There should have been a sign up around Major League Baseball: "Closers beware. Postseason ahead."
No, it certainly hasn't been a banner week for some of the best relief pitchers. In fact, all four losing teams in the first round of the playoffs had their save specialist cough up a game that looked like money.
We're not talking third violinists here. In chronological order of meltdown, they were Ryan Franklin of St. Louis, Joe Nathan of Minnesota, Jonathan Papelbon of Boston and Huston Street of Colorado -- a quartet that saved 158 games in the regular season and converted 91 percent of their chances.
In the postseason, they collectively saved one, blew four. A great regular season for each, followed by a very quick Yecch-tober.
"The struggles some guys are going through this year, you know, the quality of the teams they're facing are better," said Angels closer Brian Fuentes, who's 2 for 2 in saves so far but whose safety you fear for after the goings-on in the four divisional series. "When you're playing the best of the best, it's not easy to get three outs."
Fuentes' theory makes sense. On the other hand, he had to face the Red Sox twice, and he retired five of six hitters.
The Yankees' Mariano Rivera, who the Angels hope not to see next (or maybe they do), converted his only save chance against Minnesota. Jonathan Broxton was 1 for 1 for the Dodgers against St. Louis. And Brad Lidge, of all people, who was gut-wrenchingly awful in the regular season, squandering a major league-leading 11 opportunities, was 2 for 2 against Colorado.
In any case, it's four closers down, three to go.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia suggested closers may have it easier during the regular season. They may face one team only a few times, and only three or four batters each time.
But in the postseason, when teams re-double their scouting efforts, Scioscia said, "Nothing closers do gets swept under the rug. You don't miss anything."
If a scouting report doesn't get you, maybe the postseason pressure does.
"The situations are even more intensified," said Jason Bulger, one of a couple of young Angels set-up guys who aspire to be closers. "It's easy to start missing your spots."
His fellow late-inning reliever, Kevin Jepsen, said the outs get tougher as you go along.
"The last inning, guys aren't worried about anything except getting on base any way they can -- a walk, a bloop, doesn't matter."
Watching so many elite closers bite the dust on the playoffs' big stage won't scare Jepsen or Bulger off their eventual career plan, to finish games.
"You want to have that pressure on you," Jepsen said, smiling. "I can't explain it. You want to be the last guy on the field, with the whole team counting on you. It's a whole different atmosphere."
Said Bulger, "If you're in the bullpen, you want to pitch the ninth inning. I learned from watching Frankie (Rodriguez) and 'Tito' (Fuentes) the last two years, you have to go out there and pitch with no fear, whether it's the first game of the season or the last game of the World Series."
Fuentes said he "didn't know how hard it was to close games until I blew a couple.
"I really believe in the short memory thing. Win, lose or draw, what happened one day has nothing to do with the next."
Whether that's a good thing for him or not, we'll see. Right now the postseason has a theme and the big winner may need one thing, above all -- the last closer standing.
(Contact Gregg Patton at gpatton(at)PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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Must credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
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