Tyler

Kinley

Only the truly desperate for saves should be rostering Kinley, but he is the top option in the Colorado pen at the moment. The scoreless outing tonight was his fifth in a row, as he lowered his ERA to 8.02.

Well, it’s not a blown save. Since it was a five-run game, it wouldn’t have been a blown save even if Kinley has remained in to give up the tying run. Kinley had reemerged as the favorite for saves in the Rockies’ pen, earning three of them this month, but he’s been thoroughly unimpressive overall. The door is definitely wide open for Justin Lawrence at this point.

The save was Kinley’s fourth of the season. He now has saves in back-to-back appearances. The Rockies closer situation still seems like a mess, but there might be some clarity if Kinley continues to be the guy in the ninth inning for Colorado.

The save was Kinley’s third of the season. This was a brutal beat for Jalen Beeks managers. Beeks blew the save Wednesday night, but was able to get through the eighth inning and record the first two outs of the ninth inning before Kinley came in and got the save. The Rockies closer situation isn’t for the weak-hearted with Beeks, Kinley and Justin Lawrence all in the mix.

It was Kinley’s second save of the season and while he needed just nine pitches, he got no whiffs and had just one called strike. Kinley now has a 7.59 ERA on the season; however, he has been much better in May, allowing just three earned runs in 11 innings while striking out 10 and walking two. Jalen Beeks and Justin Lawrence had both thrown on Saturday, and Beeks had thrown in three of the last four games, but both Beeks and Lawrence each blew two saves this week as well. Kinley may be working himself into save situations, but this is a mess overall.

Kinley got the nod tonight with both Jalen Beeks and Justin Lawrence unavailable. He entered camp as probably a slight favorite over Lawrence to close for the Rockies, but he had a bad spring and then posted a 13.06 ERA in April. The good news is that he’s up to 5 2/3 scoreless innings this month. Still, he’s behind both Beeks and Lawrence in line for saves.

The 32-year-old right-hander came on with the Rockies leading 4-1 heading to the ninth inning. He did make things a bit interesting, allowing a one-out double to Austin Barnes and then plunking Freddie Freeman with two outs to bring Max Muncy to the plate as the potential tying run. He got Muncy to go down swinging though after a six-pitch battle to end the ballgame. On the season, Kinley now sports a 6.28 ERA, 1.67 WHIP and a 15/6 K/BB ratio across 14 1/3 innings to go along with five saves in seven opportunities.

It wasn’t the smoothest of innings for the right-hander, as he allowed a one-out single to Patrick Bailey and another to Joc Pederson, but he battled back to strike out Mike Yastrzemski before walking Brandon Crawford to load the bases. Not to fear, Kinley got Blake Sabol to pop out to third base to end the ballgame. The 32-year-old hurler now holds a 5.68 ERA across 12 2/3 innings on the season while notching four saves.

Lawrence appeared to roll his left ankle when his cleat got caught during an eighth-inning delivery to Joc Pederson. Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters afterwards that the 28-year-old stopper is likely to avoid a trip to the injured list, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see him sidelined for the remainder of the weekend. It would be Tyler Kinley handling any save chances in his absence.

Here’s an incredible statistic: Rockies relievers have combined for just 14 total saves this season. Kinley silenced Arizona’s lineup on Tuesday night to pick up his second in three chances and appears to be the front-runner for Colorado moving forward given Justin Lawrence’s recent struggles.