UPDATE: Welp, the uncertainty didn’t last long. Balfour is out as Rays’ closer. Joe Maddon said he would use the old “closer by committee” thing.
9:16 AM: Grant Balfour has been pretty atrocious this season. He has a 6.46 ERA, a 1.65 WHIP, and 21/20 K/BB ratio in 23 and two-thirds innings. Yesterday he came in to a 0-0 game in the ninth inning and surrendered five runs on four hits and walked two. Yet, he remains the Rays’ closer. For now. From Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times:Grant Balfour didn’t really have any answers after his latest ninth-inning collapse, turning a scoreless game — with two outs, nobody on and two strikes on a .167 hitter — into a 5-0 mess of a loss Sunday.
“He’s our closer as of today,” Maddon replied . . . “Even if I was going to change anything, I wouldn’t tell you guys anyhow.”The Rays’ season is sort of lost already, so maybe who is closing the games doesn’t matter. But in the meantime, Jake McGee or Juan Carlos Oviedo may be getting some time in the ninth inning soon.