October Blown Saves
Posted by Steve Lombardi on August 25, 2010
How many pitchers have three or more Blown Saves in post-season play?
Here's the answer: In the Postseason, from 1903 to 2009, 3+ Blown Save, as Reliever, sorted by greatest number of games in all seasons matching the selected criteria
| Rk | Player | #Matching | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Armando Benitez | 6 | Ind. Games | 2 | 1 | .667 | 9.95 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.1 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 2.68 |
| 2 | Mariano Rivera | 5 | Ind. Games | 0 | 1 | .000 | 3.52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.2 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1.57 |
| 3 | Mitch Williams | 4 | Ind. Games | 2 | 2 | .500 | 15.75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.0 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3.50 |
| 4 | Jose Mesa | 4 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | .500 | 5.19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8.2 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 1.96 |
| 5 | Ryan Madson | 4 | Ind. Games | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 9.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2.00 |
| 6 | Rick Honeycutt | 4 | Ind. Games | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 2.08 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.38 |
| 7 | Rawly Eastwick | 4 | Ind. Games | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | 6.75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.1 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2.63 |
| 8 | Dave Smith | 3 | Ind. Games | 0 | 1 | .000 | 9.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3.00 |
| 9 | Arthur Rhodes | 3 | Ind. Games | 0 | 1 | .000 | 54.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.1 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7.50 |
| 10 | Jeff Reardon | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 2 | .333 | 8.31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1.62 |
| 11 | Dan Quisenberry | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 2 | .333 | 6.48 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8.1 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1.56 |
| 12 | Alejandro Pena | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | .500 | 8.10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.1 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2.40 |
| 13 | Robb Nen | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2.10 |
| 14 | Rich Gossage | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | .500 | 12.46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.1 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2.31 |
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Armando Benitez is 37-years old now and still pitching - albeit in an Independent League. Yet, I doubt he'll get a chance to extend his "record" here any time soon.
August 25th, 2010 at 9:46 am
I believe Benitez also holds the postseason record for most Total Yardage Allowed by a Relief Pitcher, but I may be mistaken.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:41 am
three of Benitez's blown saves occurred on Oct 9--1996, 1997 and 1999. that's impressive. also impressive is how many post season appearances the guy had in his career
August 25th, 2010 at 10:44 am
It would have been nice to see saves and number of games listed for each, otherwise the table lacks almost any context. Maybe I'm missing something.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Matt Y - I think the stats shown are only for those appearances in which the pitcher had a blown save.
Anyway, as an Oriole fan, the fact that Benitez tops this list is thoroughly unsurprising to me. Tony Freaking Fernandez, 1997 ALCS. Ugh.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:13 am
That's what I thought #4, however, I still don't get what's the reason of this thread-- List the playoff blown saves leaders, but also list the number of games entered and number of saves. Without that, there's virtually no context.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Rawly Eastwick's postseason career is crazy. He's blown 4 saves without receiving a loss, and in fact WON 3 of those games. In the '75 WS he appeared in five games and blew 2 saves, which probably explains why in the bottom of the 9th of game 7 with a 1 run lead, the Reds didn't put him out there to close.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Matt Y - For context, here's the list of guys with 5+ career post-season Save Opportunities:
Generated 8/25/2010.
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August 25th, 2010 at 11:22 am
So, Armando Benitez is 6 for 10 here in the "BS" Dept.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Thanks Steve! Sorry to nitpick, I just thought it would be much more relevant with games and saves listed.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:36 am
While looking through Rhodes' game logs, I found a great game that exhibits both his and Mesa's ineptness:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200010110.shtml
Not often you enter in a save situation and your team loses by 6 runs.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:37 am
HoFer Goose blew 3 of 14 and undervalued Quisenberry blew 3 of 9. I always thought Quiz was one of the better closers --Not in Hall, but closer to the line than he was thought of by voters.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:48 am
Finger was 9 of 10 with 3 WS wins and 4-4 record and 2.35 era in 57 playoff IP. In WS play he was 2-2, 6 saves and 1.35 ERA in 33.1IP. Yes, as for in-season closers in the Hall (era+ 120), he's at the bottom perhaps, but these WS and playoff numbers are stellar and why he's in! In much less sample size and obviously not as dominant, you could say he's clearly the second best playoff closer of all time behind Mo. He also won a CY and MVP with Harvey's Wallbangers in 1981.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Eck was quite good with 15 of 17 and a 3.00 ERA, but in only 36 IP --however, his A's teams won only 1 of 3 WS and Eck will always be remember for giving up the big Gibson HR when they were heavy favorites. As playoff pitchers go though, Eck's 15 of 17, Lidge is 16 of 18, Fingers is 9 of 10, and Mo is 39 of 44. The biggest hacks have been Williams, Mesa, and Benitez.
Percivel and Wetteland are perfect at 7 for 7. Hoffman is 4 of 6. Isringhuasen is 11 of 12 and Nen 11 of 14.
My Goose comment above should have read he saved 8 of 11.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I can basically remember all but one of Mo's playoff blown saves --I believe he had one against the Indians, 2 against Boston and 1 against Diamondbacks. Who did he have other one against?
August 25th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Matt - I also forgot the other one. If you click on the Ind Games next to Rivera's name it lists them. 2004 ALDS vs. MIN
August 25th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
So, Mo blew 3 of his 5 saves in the 2004 playoffs --1 against MIN and 2 against BOS.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Randy Myers is 8 for 8.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Matt Y (13): Maybe Eck will always be remembered for the Gibson blast, but I think most of Canada will remember his October 11,1992 blown save too. Robbie Alomar's game-tying 9th inning homer forever put to bed the 'Blow' Jays label, and was the key to bringing the WS to Canada for the first time.
I had sweated through nine years of the Jays being 'oh so close', and honest to God, I KNEW that was over when he hit that one off Eck, who had tormented us for years...
August 25th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Interesting Mariano fact. 4 of the 5 blown saves came in more than 1 inning of work. The Cleveland game was the only 1 inning save situation that he's blown.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
This is misleading because in 2 of the 4 he blew the save in his first inning of work.
Of course, it is hard to blame him for coming into a game and giving up a sac fly, bit it still counts...
August 25th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Good point #18 --I did forget about that one, but i do remember it now. That's the thing about closers in the playoffs --the blown saves are really magnified.
August 25th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Also @#17- Randy Myers: Lifetime no-hitter. Who else is on THAT list?
August 25th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
@22--not exactly a lifetime no-hitter for Myers, just in save situations. he allowed 30 postseason hits in his career.
August 25th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Good point Sean-O. Once again illustrating the cost/benefit of any of these charts. Sometimes they don't mean much beyond the chart itself.
August 25th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Even the Blown Save as compared to saves stat has little meaning to me without context. Entering a game with a 1 run lead and runners on 1st and 3rd no outs and getting three straight outs is good pitching. Oh, sorry, its a BLOWN SAVE because the guy from third scored on one of the first two outs. (Rivera versus Boston Game 5) Is this blown save anything like entering with none on and a 2-run lead and giving up a 2-run HR? (see byung-hung twice in the 2001 WS)
August 25th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
So a "Save Opportunity" in this context is appearances with either a Save or a Blown Save, right? Because that would include set-up men that blew leads in the 8th, even though the intent was to NOT finish the game with them...whereas guys who came in with a save situation and pitched a scoreless 7th or 8th inning (for example) and then were lifted, are not represented here. It doesn't really matter for career set-up men, but someone who was both set-up and closer during his career would lose some of his stats.
But I guess it doesn't matter, because we are trying to show closers here anyway and don't care about "Holds".
August 25th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Sorry, I didn't realize, but this post uses the ONLY definition of a "Save Opportunity" (Saves + Blown Saves). Don't know how that escaped me all these years. I thought that it would be any time a guy came into a game in a save situation (which would also include Holds).
August 25th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
@Noodle, it's common knowledge that not all saves are created equal. There are breakdowns that are readily available in places like Bill James yearly Handbook that further breaks down the "save situation" into one of three categories: Easy, Regular, Hard. Translating that to a blown save hasn't been done in any publication that I've seen, but it wouldn't be too hard to determine.
August 25th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Eck will always be remembered for the Gibson blast, but I think most of Canada will remember his October 11, 1992 blown save too. Robbie Alomar's game-tying 9th inning homer forever put to bed the 'Blow' Jays label, and was the key to bringing the WS to Canada for the first time.
I had sweated through nine years of the Jays being 'oh so close', and honest to God, I KNEW that was over when he hit that one off Eck, who had tormented us for years...
Oddly enough, today during my lunch hour I indulged a whim and bought a 1992 Blue Jays World Champions cloisonné pin. Alomar's homer off Eckersley remains one of this Jays fan's sweetest memories. A few innings later, after the Jays had finished off the A's and won the LCS, I can recall feeling literally dazed (and overjoyed) that the playoff curse had ended. We'd hoped the A's were past their peak, but we feared that the Jays' past failures might keep them from proving it. Alomar's homer made believers of us. MichaelPat, as a fellow Blue Jays fan you'll no doubt agree that while winning the World Series that year was sweet, merely reaching the Series was transcendent.
I speak as if I'd agonized through those years alongside dozens of Canadian Jays fans, but I'm from Southern California and have lived all that time here. I know what MichaelPat's talking about, though.
August 25th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Mo was even pretty good in his blown save games in the postseason. Heh. But the really notable one is Nen -- three blown saves without an earned run!
My Armando Blownsavez memory: his week as a Yankee, I was out in Oakland. Caught the game there, and he gave up two runners with two outs in the eighth, so they brought in Rivera. An error, a run scores to tie the game (and a cheapo blown save for Mo), and the Yanks lost in extras on a gigantic homer by Tejada (I'd guess well over 450 feet).
August 25th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Not all of the pitchers on this list are traditional ninth inning closers. Ryan Madson's blown postseason saves came in games in which he entered in the 7th or 8th inning. True, each appearance cost the Phillies the lead, but the relievers who are brought into the game earlier than the 9th inning are not usually the best ones on the team. And sometimes, there is time to recover when the save is blown before the ninth, as happened on the game that is listed as having taken place on October 27, 2008. This was that suspended World Series game in Philadelphia, and Madson didn't make his appearance until it resumed two nights later. In fact, the Phillies won all four of Madson's blown postseason saves.
August 25th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Wow, so Robb Nen has 3 blown saves without allowing an earned run. Weird.
August 26th, 2010 at 1:06 am
If you want to talk about bad relief work in October, the line forms behind George Frazier. 1981 World Series, Game 3, 5th inning, ahead by a run, gives up a single, a walk, a double scoring a run, and the guy he walked scores later. Game 4, 7th inning, score tied, he gives up two hits and both runners score. 6th and final game, 5th inning, score tied, he gives up 2 runs on 4 hits.
Pitching 3.2 innings in 3 games, he goes 0-3 with a 17.18 ERA.