Everybody knows that Cardinals have had trouble in the bullpen this year. Everybody knows that Isringhausen and Franklin have accumulated a pile of missed save opportunities along with 10 losses between them. Neither has the ERA of a closer and Isringhausen’s current 5.98 ERA is difficult to align with his career statistics. With the recent recall of Chris Perez, the Cardinals may be closing in on a solution. Since rejoining the club last week, Perez has made three appearances, each scoreless and each of one inning or more. His first appearance saw him pitch an inning and two-thirds of scoreless baseball on just 21 pitches, leading to his first career save. I admit that it is hard to project Perez as the closer based on eleven outs, but with five strikeouts, four ground ball outs, one fly out, and a runner caught stealing against just two walks and one hit, he seems to be pitching the way a closer should. I think it’s prudent to keep the closer-by-committee policy alive, but I like what I’m seeing from Chris Perez.
i agree with the way the birds are handling this one. attaching a title to perez doesn’t do anyone any good at this point. we’re talking about a team and fan base that’s screaming for a savior, a team that has blown 27 games year and was on base to shatter the mlb record (set by the 1969 cubs? someone look that up). even bob gibson would wouldn’t welcome that kind of unnecessary pressure! let’s continue to take it one game at a time with perez and let him earn that label over the long hall.