Trevor

Megill

Megill was called on in the eighth inning Sunday. After a Ty France home run brought the Twins to within one, the Twins put two men on base with two outs in the eighth. Megill came in a promptly struck out Jonah Bride to end the threat. In the ninth inning, the Twins would put two men on base again only for Megill to put out the fire again. He has a 2.70 ERA to go along with his 17 saves this year.

Megill was brought in to protect a one-run lead at Wrigley Field for his first appearance since last Sunday after Abner Uribe coughed up a pair of runs in the ensuing frame. The 31-year-old righty managed to work around a leadoff walk to Ian Happ by striking out Kyle Tucker and coaxing a game-ending double play from Seiya Suzuki to extinguish the threat. He’s converted 16 of 18 save opportunities this season to go along with a 2.84 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and 30/13 K/BB ratio across 25 1/3 innings.

The second single was a bunt by Nolan Gorman, putting the tying run on second base and the go-ahead run on first. Megill, though, fanned Jordan Walker, Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn afterwards. It’s the first time since April 2 that he’s struck out three in an inning.

Megill was handed a 3-1 lead in the ninth, so fortunately the run didn’t cause a blown save. It did cause his ERA to rise to 3.06, but fantasy managers will accept that number as long as the saves keep coming. He’s now up to 14 on the season, and two strikeouts during Friday’s effort raise his K/BB ratio to 26/12. That’s far from dominant, but effective enough.

The 31-year-old right-hander looked extremely sharp in this one, striking out Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies in succession before retiring Sean Murphy on a fly ball to left field to end it. He needed just 12 pitches (eight strikes) to get the job done. On the season, Megill now sports a 2.82 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and a 24/12 K/BB ratio over 22 1/3 innings while converting 13 of his first 15 save chances.

The Brewers scored in the bottom of the ninth afterwards, giving Megill a victory, so this won’t do too much harm to his standing. Working with a two-run lead, Megill gave up a single and a walk before Luis Arraez dropped a game-tying double down the left-field line. He then got Manny Machado out to keep it tied. It’s his second blown save in 14 chances.

It was a one-run game, but Megill only had to make his way through Jose Trevino, Santiago Espinal and Garrett Hampson to finish it. Those three have career OPS+s of 78. 88 and 71, respectively.

Megill allowed one hit and recorded one strikeout in a scoreless ninth inning on his way to his 11th save. The 31-year-old right-hander lowered his ERA to 2.33 in the process. After concerns about his health early in the season, Megill’s velocity and performance have been stellar of late.

Megill walked two and gave up an RBI single to Jarren Duran in what had been a two-run game. At that point, the Brewers intentionally walked Rafael Devers to load the bases with two outs. He then got Connor Wong, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner for Carlos Narváez, to hit an easy flyout to end the contest. Megill was pumped up for this one; his 99.9 mph average on his fastball was the best of the year and 1.7 mph higher than his season average, though that has been creeping up in recent weeks. He is sure to need Tuesday off after throwing 52 pitches the last two days. Abner Uribe has also worked back-to-back days, so Jared Koenig could be the choice to close.

Megill struck out the first two batters he faced in the inning before allowing an infield single to Alexander Canario. He responded by getting Adam Frazier to ground out to second, which earned him his ninth save of the season. Despite early concerns about Megill’s health, his velocity was up one mph today, and he seems to be rounding into form.