Kirby

Yates

Yates has gone five straight outings without allowing a hit and 10 without giving up a run. He’s not touching Emmanuel Clase for AL Reliever of the Year (now the Mariano Rivera Award, but forever the Rolaids Relief Man Award), but he’s sporting an incredible 1.17 ERA in 61 2/3 innings.

The save was his 32nd of the season. Yates lowered his ERA to 1.19 on the season. He’s quietly been one of the better closers in fantasy this season.

Yates was summoned in the top of the ninth to close out the game with a two-run lead over the Blue Jays. He struck out two batters in a perfect inning of work for his 31st save of the season.

Since taking his first blown save on Aug. 18, Yates has made 11 appearances that have resulted in nine saves and two wins. His ERA is back down to 1.27 for the year.

Four of those saves have come against the team that gave up one him after one outing in 2017. He’s since saved 89 games and gone to two All-Star Games. Today’s outing was Yates’ fourth in five days, which seems excessive for a 37-year-old pitching for a team with very little hope of reaching the postseason. The Rangers have Monday off, at least.

Yates’ save was his 28th of the season. He struck out one in a perfect ninth inning. He lowered his ERA to 1.32 on the year. Yates has quietly been one of the better closers in all of baseball this year.

Yates’ save was his 27th of the season. He struck out three in a perfect ninth inning. Yates didn’t start the season with the closer’s job, but has been one of the better pickups of the fantasy season. He lowered his ERA to 1.34 on the year with the scoreless outing.

Yates was brought in to face Giancarlo Stanton as the third pitcher of the ninth for the Rangers with two outs, four runs already in and two men on base. Stanton crushed a liner to left that would have been gone, but Wyatt Langford jumped and caught the ball a few inches above the fence. Even if had been a homer, the Rangers still would have been up 10-9.

Yates entered with a 2-0 lead, so while he did give up a solo homer to Andrew Benintendi, it hurt only the ERA and didn’t cause a blown save. The 37-year-old now has 25 saves in his comeback campaign, and even with the roundtripper, his ERA is still a strong 1.41 on the year.

Yates got the call to guard a two-run lead in the final frame and needed just 19 pitches (11 strikes) to end it. He struck out Lenyn Sosa and Dominic Fletcher to open the ninth inning before issuing a two-out walk to Miguel Vargas, which brought the potential tying run to the plate. The 37-year-old veteran stopper extinguished any hope for Chicago by getting rookie Brooks Baldwin to ground out to second base to end the contest.