Anatomy of the Orioles' blown saves (2024)

[Frobby]

(Note: I was working on this post before today's game, so I wasn;t writing it just because I was in a gloomy mood.)

Last year, the Oriole blew 31 saves, but only 15 losses resulted from those blown saves.  This thread is to track the O's blown saves and the outcomes for 2024.

Through 47 games in 2024, the Orioles have blown 10 saves resulting in 6 losses.   Here's a summary of the blown saves to date:

April 1: In his first appearance of the year, sitting on a 4-3 lead against the Royals in the top of the 9th, Craig Kimbrel allowed a bloop single that dropped between Henderson and Hays, either of whom could have made the catch.  Kimbrel allowed the runner to steal second and third, and then a sac fly to RF plated the tying run for the blown save.  Fortunately, the O's scored two more runs in the bottom of the 9th and prevailed 6-4.

April 6: Mike Baumann entered the bottom of the 10th in Pittsburgh ahead 4-3, but with the zombie runner on 2B.  He allowed a single, a stolen base and a walk to load the bases, then walked in the tying run.   Danny Coulombe escaped the remaining bases loaded nobody out jam, but the O's lost in the 11th, 5-4.

April 7: Yennier Cano entered the game in Pittsburgh in the bottom of the 9th with a 2-1 lead and loaded the bases on two singles and a walk.  He induced a force out at home, but the next batter hit a ground ball sharply up the middle that Gunnar Henderson was able to grab on a lunging dive and then tag 2B with his glove from the ground, but he then tried to scramble to his feet  and complete a DP, and the throw was wide, allowing 2 runs to score on the play, as the O's lost 3-2.

April 11: Coulombe entered a game in Boston in the 8th inning ahead 3-2, but after recording two outs, allowed a game-tying homer to Connor Wong for the blown save.  No matter: the O's scored 6 times in the top of the 10th and won 9-4, completing a three-game sweep of the Red Sox.

April 17: Jacob Webb entered the game in the bottom of the 7th with the O's leading the Twins 1-0, and one out with a runner on 1B.   Webb immediately allowed a single that scored a runner all the way from 1st, and the batter advanced to second on the throw home.  That runner later scored on a single to put the O's behind 2-1.   But the O's tied the game in the bottom of the frame and won it on a Cedric Mullins walk-off in the 9th.

April 26: Sitting on a run of 7 consecutive saves, Kimbrel entered the top of the 9th with a 2-1 lead over Oakland, but allowed a double, a walk, another double, a fielder's choice and two more walks.   The Orioles lost the game 3-2.

April 28:  Just two days later, Kimbrel faced the A's again, leading 6-5 in the top of the 9th.   He walked the first batter and allowed a two-run homer to the second, and was pulled from the game.  The O's lost 7-6.

May 8:  At Washington, Kimbrel entered in the 9th with a 4-2 lead.  He got two quick outs, but then allowed a solo homer, a walk, a stolen base, and another walk.  At that point Brandon Hyde had seen enough and brought in Keegan Akin.   Unfortunately, Akin uncorked a wild pitch and then allowed a run-scoring single to tie the game.   The blown save was charged to Akin but Kimbrel had a big hand in it.  The O's later blew another two-run lead in the 11th (Anthony Suarez, who was not charged with a blown save because he was the pitcher of record if they'd held that lead), then almost blew another two-run lead in the 12th, but Webb escaped with only one run allowed and the O's were 7-6 winners.

May 13: Cano entered the game in the bottom of the 8th with the O's leading the visiting Blue Jays 2-1.  He allowed a game-tying homer to Daulton Varsho to tie the game.  The O's eventually lost in extra innings 3-2.

May 18: Leading the Mariners 2-0 in the top of the 7th, Coulombe started the inning by allowing a single and a double, and then a run-scoring ground out that left a runner on 3B with one out.  Suarez then entered the game and allowed a game-tying double for the blown save, though Coulombe had a lot to do with it.   The O's gave up two more runs in the 8th and lost 4-2.

I'll update this every so often.   Hopefully, we won't see this many blown saves in the next 47 games.

 

[Frobby]

Seems like a good day to update this, following a game where our bullpen blew a save but we won anyway.   

Since the OP, in the last 55 games the O’s bullpen has blown 6 saves, as follows:

May 24: Yennier Cano entered the game in the bottom of the 7th with the O’s leading the White Sox 4-3, but yielded a one-out homer to Andrew Vaughn to tie the score.  The O’s answered with two in the top of the 8th and won 6-4.

June 2: Dillon Tate relieved Cole Irvin with one out in the top of the 7th, ahead of the Rays 3-2.  He escaped that inning but allowed 2 runs in the 8th and the O’s lost 4-3.

June 12: Keegan Akin entered the game with 2 outs in the 7th, O’s leading Atlanta 2-0.  He got through that inning but allowed a 2-run bomb to Matt Olson in the 8th to tie the score at 2-2.  No matter: the O’s scored two of their own in the bottom of the frame and the O’s won 4-2.

June 19:  Craig Kimbrel entered in the bottom of the 9th, O’s leading the Yankees 5-4.   He allowed lead off double to Anthony Volpe and then a one-out RBI single to Giancarlo Stanton, but escaped the inning tied 5-5.  The O’s scored 2 in the top of the 10th and Tate allowed 1 run in the bottom half but held on for the 7-6 win.

July 14: Ahead of the Yankees 4-3 in the  bottom of the 9th, Kimbrel walked the no. 8 hitter Trent Grisham and no. 9 Oswaldo Cabrera, then allowed a 3-run homer to Ben Rice to put the O’s behind 6-4.  But in the bottom of the 9th, the O’s rallied for three runs of their own, aided by two two-out Yankee miscues that handed the victory to the Birds, 7-6.

July 25: Kimbrel entered a game in Miami ahead 6-3 and quickly got the lead off batter.  But then, Norby tripped after charging a slow roller to 2B, ruled a single, and Kimbrel walked the next two batters on 3-2 pitches.  The next hitter hit a routine grounder just to the right of 2B that Gunnar fielded but flubbed, allowing a run to score   The next hitter hit a sacrifice fly to LF to make it 6-5, and then Josh Bell hit a single in the gap on an absolutely terrible pitch that tied the score.  At that point Kimbrel was yanked from the game and Cano was able to end the inning with a strikeout.  Fortunately, the O’s scored once in the top of the 10th and Cionel Perez was able to shut Miami down in the bottom of the inning, and the O’s won 7-6.

So miraculously, these most recent 6 blown saves only resulted in one loss.  Interestingly, the last three were all by Kimbrel and all ended as 7-6 wins.  Great job by the O’s offense to overcome adversity.

So, on the year, that’s 32 saves and 16 blown saves, a decent 67% save rate (league average is 63%) that becomes better when you realize that the 16 blown saves only resulted in 7 losses.  The perpetrators:

6 - Kimbrel (2 losses)

3 - Cano (2)

2 - Akin (0)

1 - Baumann (1 loss), Coulome (0), Suarez (1), Tate (1), Webb (0).  

[OnlyOneOriole]

Good DD.  That is amazing.   I would never have guessed that.

 

31 blown saves resulting in 15 losses?  Really goes to show you how rare and valuable a guy like a Britton is/was.   Literally the difference between the playoffs and not.

Edited July 26 by OnlyOneOriole

[Frobby]

7 minutes ago, OnlyOneOriole said:

Good DD.  That is amazing.   I would never have guessed that.

 

31 blown saves resulting in 15 losses?  Really goes to show you how rare and valuable a guy like a Britton is/was.   Literally the difference between the playoffs and not.

Well, remember that many saves are blown before the 9th inning.  Even in the year where Britton saved 47 and blew zero, the bullpen blew 14 saves.  However, there is no question that Britton’s performance was the difference between making the playoffs and not.  I’d also say the same of Jim Johnson in 2012 (51 saves in 54 chances).   

[AlbNYfan]

Two weeks ago most were talking about Kimbrel being screwed not making the All Stars over the Yankee closer. Kimbrel certainly has his terrible moments. Yesterday's blown save was a team blown save. He got the first out, a grounder to third (on one pitch??).  A couple of pitches later a soft roller to second is messed up by Norby. Then a couple (three??) batters later our golden boy did a Volpe. Kimbrel should have gotten out of that unscathed, not pretty but no foul. I don't understand Hyde's decision to keep in for the game tying run when he was near 30 pitches. You give a team 5 outs and crap happens. 

[Sports Guy]

27 minutes ago, AlbNYfan said:

Two weeks ago most were talking about Kimbrel being screwed not making the All Stars over the Yankee closer. Kimbrel certainly has his terrible moments. Yesterday's blown save was a team blown save. He got the first out, a grounder to third (on one pitch??).  A couple of pitches later a soft roller to second is messed up by Norby. Then a couple (three??) batters later our golden boy did a Volpe. Kimbrel should have gotten out of that unscathed, not pretty but no foul. I don't understand Hyde's decision to keep in for the game tying run when he was near 30 pitches. You give a team 5 outs and crap happens. 

Well said…now Kimbrel can’t walk guys either. He has to be better there but yea, that inning never happens if the defensive players make the routine plays.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Well said…now Kimbrel can’t walk guys either. He has to be better there but yea, that inning never happens if the defensive players make the routine plays.

I think the Norby play would have been bang-bang if he’d fielded it cleanly.  It was an unfortunately placed 78 mph squibber.  I wouldn’t call that play routine. Of course, Norby’s stumble eliminated any chance of making the play.   

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

I think the Norby play would have been bang-bang if he’d fielded it cleanly.  It was an unfortunately placed 78 mph squibber.  I wouldn’t call that play routine. Of course, Norby’s stumble eliminated any chance of making the play.   

He’s one of the best in the world at what he does..that’s a play a professional baseball player makes…if they stay on their feet.  

[zweem]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I think the Norby play would have been bang-bang if he’d fielded it cleanly.  It was an unfortunately placed 78 mph squibber.  I wouldn’t call that play routine. Of course, Norby’s stumble eliminated any chance of making the play.   

Or safe if the fielder has a noodle arm.

[HowAboutThat]

This required a lot of work. Thank you. Your posts are a big part of this site.

[Frobby]

A minor blown saves update.  The O’s only have blown 3 saves since my July 26 post, and all three were in the same week, resulting in two losses.  None were in the 8th/9th inning.

August 6: Gregory Soto entered a game against the Blue Jays with 2 outs in the 6th inning, the O’s leading 1-0 with a runner on 1st.   He immediately allowed a double and a homer to blow the lead, and another two runs after that.   Soto took the blown save and the loss, as the O’s lost 5-2.

August 10: Burch Smith entered the game in the bottom of the 7th with the O’s ahead of the Rays 4-3, and allowed a solo homer to tie the game.  The O’s responded with 3 in the top of the 8th and held on to win 7-5.

August 11: Cionel Perez came into a 1-0 game with 2 outs in the 7th, and promptly allowed a double and a run-scoring single.  The O’s allowed another run in the 8th and lost 2-1.

So, it’s been a month since the O’s blew a save, and they’ve only blown 5 since June 20, which essentially is exactly when the team went from being dominant to mediocre.  It’s rather interesting that while the bullpen has been awful for large stretches of the last 2.5+ months, it hasn’t manifested in very many blown saves.  Instead, it’s mostly been the pen entering games we were already losing and letting the situation get worse, or coming into tie games and losing them.  Those are annoying, but we haven’t seen many blown leads.  In fact, the Orioles’ save percentage of 70% is third in MLB.   

[HowAboutThat]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

A minor blown saves update.  The O’s only have blown 3 saves since my July 26 post, and all three were in the same week, resulting in two losses.  None were in the 8th/9th inning.

August 6: Gregory Soto entered a game against the Blue Jays with 2 outs in the 6th inning, the O’s leading 1-0 with a runner on 1st.   He immediately allowed a double and a homer to blow the lead, and another two runs after that.   Soto took the blown save and the loss, as the O’s lost 5-2.

August 10: Burch Smith entered the game in the bottom of the 7th with the O’s ahead of the Rays 4-3, and allowed a solo homer to tie the game.  The O’s responded with 3 in the top of the 8th and held on to win 7-5.

August 11: Cionel Perez came into a 1-0 game with 2 outs in the 7th, and promptly allowed a double and a run-scoring single.  The O’s allowed another run in the 8th and lost 2-1.

So, it’s been a month since the O’s blew a save, and they’ve only blown 5 since June 20, which essentially is exactly when the team went from being dominant to mediocre.  It’s rather interesting that while the bullpen has been awful for large stretches of the last 2.5+ months, it hasn’t manifested in very many blown saves.  Instead, it’s mostly been the pen entering games we were already losing and letting the situation get worse, or coming into tie games and losing them.  Those are annoying, but we haven’t seen many blown leads.  In fact, the Orioles’ save percentage of 70% is third in MLB.   

Doesn’t that kind of illustrate how useless the save stat is? I don’t care who gets a save. What matters to me is a guy who can come out with one out and the bases loaded and be nails. Jim Johnson was Nails, Zach Britton was nails.

Not perfect, but these guys were so good that it was a genuine surprise when they failed.

It would be too much work, but it would be very interesting to know how many guys came into a one run game, in either direction, in the middle innings and let things get away.

Letting a 3-1 game turn into five to one or seven to one game in the fifth inning is much more frustrating.
No, it’s all frustrating, but I guess that’s frustrating early enough in the game that we scream about it for longer.

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, Frobby said:

So, it’s been a month since the O’s blew a save,

Sometimes, I hate myself.  

[HowAboutThat]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Sometimes, I hate myself.  

Maybe there should be a thread:

”Should Frobby be relieved of his duties?”

[sportsfan8703]

12 hours ago, Frobby said:

A minor blown saves update.  The O’s only have blown 3 saves since my July 26 post, and all three were in the same week, resulting in two losses.  None were in the 8th/9th inning.

August 6: Gregory Soto entered a game against the Blue Jays with 2 outs in the 6th inning, the O’s leading 1-0 with a runner on 1st.   He immediately allowed a double and a homer to blow the lead, and another two runs after that.   Soto took the blown save and the loss, as the O’s lost 5-2.

August 10: Burch Smith entered the game in the bottom of the 7th with the O’s ahead of the Rays 4-3, and allowed a solo homer to tie the game.  The O’s responded with 3 in the top of the 8th and held on to win 7-5.

August 11: Cionel Perez came into a 1-0 game with 2 outs in the 7th, and promptly allowed a double and a run-scoring single.  The O’s allowed another run in the 8th and lost 2-1.

So, it’s been a month since the O’s blew a save, and they’ve only blown 5 since June 20, which essentially is exactly when the team went from being dominant to mediocre.  It’s rather interesting that while the bullpen has been awful for large stretches of the last 2.5+ months, it hasn’t manifested in very many blown saves.  Instead, it’s mostly been the pen entering games we were already losing and letting the situation get worse, or coming into tie games and losing them.  Those are annoying, but we haven’t seen many blown leads.  In fact, the Orioles’ save percentage of 70% is third in MLB.   

It’s hard to blow saves when we don’t have leads.