The mother of all series finales…
Last night, Ryne Nelson picked up the save for Arizona, getting a pretty rare six-out save for Arizona. That in itself is not common: excluding saves obtained under the three-inning rule, where the margin doesn’t matter, the last D-back to get a “genuine” six-out save was… um, Scott McGough. Let’s move rapidly, on shall we? But what I found more interesting was Nelson becoming the 27th player for Arizona to start and also get a save in the same season. Having also done so in 2024, he joins a rather more elite group – Josh Colmenter, Patrick Corbin and Randall Delgado – to do it twice. But perhaps the rarest feat was Nelson getting the start and save in consecutive games.
It’s not unprecedented. Jordan Montgomery did it in September last year. But the save in that case was one of those three-inning specials, “saving” a 14-4 blowout win. Indeed, Nelson himself also did it the same month, but there were three weeks between the start and the save, which was also an 11-2 win. Zack Godley did it in May 2019, but he was really more of an opener in the start, going just two innings. Randall Delgado, May 2017? Three inning save. You have to back to early 2014 for a genuinely comparable feat. Trevor Cahill started a game on April 13, pitched four innings and took the loss. His next outing was five days later, and he closed out the 12th inning of a 4-2 win in Los Angeles.
It was a little odd seeing Nelson throw only 16 pitches, because his previous outings had all been at least thirty, the team looking to keep his stretched out. Hard to know if this means the team’s intentions for him have changed, or if they were just hoping the Dodgers would take a few more pitches! Anyway, he sealed the win, and we have a chance to take three of four in the series, which would be a fine result. KJKrug is on the guest recap, but she will be at Chase Field for this one, and I’m off to the SnakePitette’s for a Mother’s Day dinner, so it might take a while for it to reach the front page! Talk among yourselves here until it shows up…