No question: Kimbrel is ‘the best guy’

BALTIMORE — It’s hard to resist using a closer who’s about the nearest thing this game has to a trump card.

Craig Kimbrel’s 2.95 ERA isn’t eye-popping but his 35 strikeouts and eight walks in 211⁄ innings are. 3

Plus, just watch him pitch. The radar gun, the imposing look. He’s all you could want in a closer.

“He’s quickly come into the conversation as one of the best ever,” Red Sox manger John Farrell said while talking about Kimbrel’s fastball-curveball repertoire prior to last night’s game against the Orioles.

Kimbrel’s last two outings had swung from extremes: a perilous situation spanning the eighth and ninth inning that didn’t work out in Toronto on Saturday, to a run-of-the-mill ninth that proved a breeze three days later at Camden Yards.

On Tuesday, against the Orioles Farrell turned to his bullpen ace with a four-run lead, a non-save situation. Nine pitches and eight strikes later, the plan worked, to say the least.

But was pitching Kimbrel the best use of weaponry, with such a big lead?

“With a four-run lead, middle of the of the order, this ballpark — somebody gets on (base), he’s getting up anyway,” Farrell said. “And I know that’s the great debate: What’s the save percentage, conversion rate with a three-run lead, and probably it climbs even more (with a four-run advantage) — why would you use that guy?

“Well he was fully rested, felt like it was just — let’s get this game under control, finish it off and move on.”

Tuesday’s first batter, No. 6 hitter Mark Trumbo, is in the midst of a very good season. He went down on three pitches against Kimbrel, looking foolish on a curveball on the last. Matt Wieters fanned as well, going down on five pitches, the last a knuckle-curve that’s in much better form than it was at the start of the year.

“I think even coming out of spring training it was not as we see it now,” Farrell said. “He was a little bit side by side, or working east and west vs. north and south, and that keeps him in the lane which he’s going to a little bit more consistently, and that has helped the strike throwing ability of his curveball as well.”

Kimbrel was coming off a career-high 39 pitches Saturday in Toronto, so more than the two days off that he was afforded wouldn’t have been unwarranted. But Farrell also noted Kimbrel doesn’t like to go more than five days without pitching.

Farrell brought Kimbrel into Saturday’s game in the eighth with one out and a runner on third to protect an 8-7 lead, a potential and difficult five-out save.

Kimbrel struck out two, but allowed the game-tying single, then allowed two earned runs in the ninth in a 10-9 loss.

Three of the last four times Kimbrel has successfully recorded at least four outs in a game, he’s allowed at least one run and needed at least 33 pitches, and that’s dating to 2014, because it’s not a common occurrence for him.

Does that mean the Sox shouldn’t try it?

“He’s ready to pitch when called upon,” Farrell said when asked whether Kimbrel has communicated a preference about multiinning appearances. “Now, there’s definitely a shift from a mindset standpoint, getting up in the eighth inning, when otherwise he’s been preparing all along to be ready for the ninth.

“But, they’re smart, they see the game unfold. This is now the second time we’ve done it and unfortunately, it hasn’t finished off the way we hoped. But in those high-leverage situations, he’s the best guy we can turn to and make that decision.”