Friday, June 01, 2007

Saito: Awesome, and Humble Too

From tonight's mlb.com game recap comes some incredible humility from our awesome closer Takashi Saito, now with 16 saves on the year:

Luis Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a double, but perhaps most impressive was Saito, who has converted all 16 save opportunities this year, 26 straight going back to last year and 40 of his first 42, surpassing former teammate Eric Gagne as the most efficient with that many chances.

"I've very happy you guys place me in the same breath as Gagne, but in my mind, Gagne is a better pitcher than I am," said Saito.

This was no routine save, either, as Little yanked Billingsley while on his roll to have Joe Beimel face the left-handed Adam LaRoche, who doubled with one out in the eighth. On came Saito with the tying run on second base, and he struck out Ronny Paulino and Jack Wilson to douse the uprising before finishing the job in the ninth.

"Getting more than three outs is the toughest save, mainly because you have to sit down and get back up and keep the level of intensity high," said Saito, who has 29 strikeouts and only two walks.

I don't know about Grady's move to bring in Saito so early; however, it was great to see Saito rise to the challenge. Don't overuse him, Grady! Keep him rested until the 9th, when we'll need him!

2 comments:

Alex Cora said...

Saito hadn't been used in a while since we blew out the nationals. He looked pretty good last night. Think he should start growing the goatee? GAME OVER!

Rob said...

And one of those blown saves was the historic 4+1 game.

Just gotta love Sammy.