In 2023, Emmanuel Clase tied for the franchise record for saves before the All-Star Game. This year he’s broken it, picking up his 26th save on Saturday against the Giants.
The pre-All-Star-Game saves leaderboard:
Scott Barlow pitched a perfect 9th with three strikeouts to pick up the save last night against the Orioles. We could call this an Immaculate Save (though I think it should be called a Kimbrel, as Craig is the all-time leader by a wide margin with 36).
It was the 30th Immaculate Save (striking out every batter in a save of at least three outs) in franchise history.
Brad Hand and Chris Perez are the franchise leaders with four apiece.
The most impressive Immaculate Save in team history belongs to Dave LaRoche. He’s the only one in franchise history to strikeout all four batters he faced in save doing so against Boston, striking out, in order: Fred Lynn, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice and Bobby Darwin.
Nick Sandlin gave up a grand slam to the Blue Jays’ Dalton Varsho yesterday and was removed from the game before recording an out.
He’s the 12th pitcher in franchise history to give up a grand slam without recording an out. The others:
Latman and Barker were the only ones to do so as a starting pitcher. Latman and Shaw were the only ones to give up multiple home runs in the game.
Lilliquist (vs Detroit’s Lou Whitaker) and Shuey (vs Anaheim’s Tim Salmon) gave up walk-off grand slams.
Emmanuel Clase, who was named to the All-Star team for the second consecutive year, matched Joe Borowski‘s team record for saves in the first half with 25.
The list: