Closer Davis gets full support from Black
MILWAUKEE» Rockies manager Bud Black is standing shoulderto-shoulder with closer Wade Davis.
The day after Davis blew saves in consecutive games, Black backed up Davis with confident words, as well as some select statistics. Black reiterated that he has no plans to remove Davis as the team’s closer.
“I’m going to defend Wade Davis,” Black said Saturday afternoon before the Rockies played the Brewers at Miller Park. “This season is not going to depend on just the bullpen, or the lineup or the starting rotation. I can’t remember which player said it best last night, in a quote. ‘When we lose, we lose as a team. When we win, we win as a team.’ That’s how we look at it.’ “
That player, by the way, was veteran outfielder Carlos Gonzalez.
“Now, are their certain segments we have to look at? Absolutely,” Black added. “That’s what we are going to do every day, as coaches and as players.”
Davis blew a save against the Cardinals in the ninth inning on Thursday in a 3-2 loss. Friday night, Davis walked two batters, setting up Eric Thames to hit a three-run, walk-off homer as the Brewers beat Colorado 5-3.
Entering Saturday night’s game, Davis had a 5.09 ERA and had blow six saves in 37 opportunities. At this point in the season last year, closing for Chicago, Davis did not have a blown a save in 22 chances and a 2.43 ERA. But, as Black noted, relievers’ ERAS are often skewed by a few bad performances. In Davis’ six blown saves this season, for example, he has a 27.00 ERA over 4 L innings, with a .458 batting average against. Of the six home runs he’s given up this season over a total of 46 innings pitched, three have come in his blown saves.
Subtract those six bad games from Davis’ record, Black noted, and Davis’ ERA dips to 2.81. However, the Rockies gave Davis a three-year, $52 million contract precisely because they are relying on him to close out tight games such as Friday night’s.
Davis has a 1.239 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) this season, a pale comparison to his remarkable 0.787 WHIP with Kansas City in his 2015 all-star season. Still, Davis is confident he’ll get the job done for Colorado.
“I had good stuff the whole inning,” he said Friday night. “When you are going through stretches like this, it’s just tough for the whole team to swallow, more than (for) my selfish reasons.”
Colorado’s overall 5.23 bullpen ERA is the second worst in the majors and its 1.45 WHIP is the sixth highest. Black said he understands that the bullpen needs to improve, but expressed faith that it would.
“Our bullpen hasn’t performed like we thought it would, all year, as group,” Black said. “There has been some great individual efforts along they way. (Adam) Ottavino has had a great season. Wade Davis is leading the (National League) in saves. There have been some other bright spots, here and there. We still have two full months of baseball to continue to contend. We are right there in the thick of it.”