{"id":72324,"date":"2024-05-04T14:53:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-04T18:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=72324"},"modified":"2024-05-04T14:53:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-04T18:53:10","slug":"orioles-craig-kimbrel-historic-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/04\/orioles-craig-kimbrel-historic-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Injured Orioles Closer Makes History In Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel recorded his historic eighth save of the season, sealing Friday\u2019s win in a perfect ninth inning. It was Kimbrel\u2019s first appearance five days after leaving the game alongside the Orioles training staff on April 28th. Orioles manager <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/hydebr99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brandon Hyde<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> said after the game that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/29\/orioles-craig-kimbrel-injury\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kimbrel was considered day-to-day<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with upper back tightness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kimbrel, who has otherwise been dominant for Baltimore, struggled in his two outings against Oakland recording back-to-back blown saves and his first loss of the season. The veteran closer was throwing in the mid-90s on Sunday, but something was visibly wrong. The 35-year-old&#8217;s back injury could explain his uncharacteristic struggles against the Athletics. Going into the series opener, Kimbrel had a 0.81 ERA after throwing ten shutout innings since his first blown save on April 1st. His ERA shot up to 3.18 after giving up three runs to the A\u2019s over 1 \u2153 innings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After five days on the sidelines, Kimbrel returned to his role as the Orioles closer in Friday&#8217;s win over Cincinnati. The veteran right-hander didn&#8217;t show any signs of rust Friday, striking out the side to close out a shutout victory. Kimbrel recorded his eighth save of the season and the 425th save of his career. He passes John Franco, which ties him with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/janseke01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kenley Jansen<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for fifth most all-time. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kimbrcr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Craig Kimbrel<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (3-1) sports a 2.92 ERA with a 1.14 WHIP and 20 strikeouts through 12 \u2153 innings. His eight saves on the season ties the veteran right-hander fourth in the American League with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/03\/oakland-athletics-mason-miller-history\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A\u2019s closer Mason Miller.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">With his save tonight, Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel has passed John Franco on MLB&#8217;s all-time saves list and moved into a tie for fifth with Kenley Jansen at 425.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jcalvinmeyer\/status\/1786598141715677592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Orioles Craig Kimbrel Returns From Back Injury In Historic Fashion<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kimbrel signed a one-year, $13 million contract with the Orioles following F\u00e9lix Bautista\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/10\/orioles-bautista-second-surgery\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">season-ending elbow surgery.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Right-hander <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bautife01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">F\u00e9lix Bautista<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earned his first AL Reliever of the Year last season despite spending September on the injured list. While Kimbrel hasn\u2019t been lighting up the radar gun through his first 12 \u2153 innings in Baltimore, he hasn\u2019t needed to. He sports a 20:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and the spin rates on his four-seam and knuckle curve are nearing career highs. The future Hall of Famer has a 40% strikeout percentage that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/leaderboard\/custom?year=2024&amp;type=pitcher&amp;filter=&amp;min=25&amp;selections=pa%2Ck_percent%2Cbb_percent%2Cwoba%2Cxwoba%2Csweet_spot_percent%2Cbarrel_batted_rate%2Chard_hit_percent%2Cavg_best_speed%2Cavg_hyper_speed%2Cwhiff_percent%2Cswing_percent&amp;chart=false&amp;x=pa&amp;y=pa&amp;r=no&amp;chartType=beeswarm&amp;sort=k_percent&amp;sortDir=desc\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ranks him seventh<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among all MLB pitchers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baltimore has said they won\u2019t use the veteran closer three days in a row this early in the season. But the Orioles haven\u2019t used his arm sparingly, either. With 14 appearances through his team\u2019s first 32 games, he\u2019s on pace for 70 outings this year\u2014a threshold he has only reached twice in his career. In recent years, Kimbrel has struggled with fatigue and overuse in the second half of the season. But his lower velocity could be what helps him fight off the fatigue that has plagued him in recent years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Craig Kimbrel is one of the greatest relievers of his generation, and he is electric to watch when he\u2019s going strong. Kimbrel has never made a start and is tied 16th all-time with Jansen in games finished (622). He will continue to battle Jansen for the active lead in career saves and could surpass <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rodrifr03.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Francisco Rodr\u00edguez<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (437) for fourth all-time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Kimbrel&#8217;s battery mate, Orioles catcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rutscad01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adley Rutschman,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> said after Kimbrel&#8217;s early exit Sunday, \u201cI think that Craig\u2019s a phenomenal pitcher. He\u2019s going to bounce back. We\u2019ve got no worries.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kimbrel certainly didn&#8217;t show any signs of rust on Friday after five days of rest after recovering from upper back tightness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits:\u00a0 <em>James A. Pittman-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel recorded his historic eighth save of the season, sealing Friday\u2019s win in a perfect ninth inning. It was Kimbrel\u2019s first appearance five days after leaving the game alongside the Orioles training staff on April 28th. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said after the game that Kimbrel was considered day-to-day with upper back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":72335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1071],"tags":[2657,2527,124,5662,560,3909,432,283],"class_list":["post-72324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orioles","category-mlb","tag-adley-rutschman","tag-brandon-hyde","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-felix-bautista","tag-francisco-rodriguez","tag-john-franco","tag-kenley-jansen","tag-oakland-athletics"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}