CHICAGO — Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was widely criticized for not bringing in Craig Kimbrel before or during the eighth inning of the Braves' Division Series Game 4 loss to the Dodgers, when Yasiel Puig led off with a double and Juan Uribe followed with a two-run homer that lifted the Dodgers to a series-clinching 4-3 win.
Gonzalez stood by the decision and still says he wouldn’t be comfortable bringing in Kimbrel for a six-out save. Not hyet. But he’s willing to bring him in for four-out saves, which he did Thursday at New York for the second time this season, and Gonzalez might have him for a five-out save in the right circumstances.
In both four-out saves this season, Kimbrel hadn’t pitched in the previous five days.
“It was perfect opportunity (Thursday),” Gonzalez said. “And I’m glad to see him get it in the least amount of pitches so he could be available (Friday). Sometimes you crank him up for four outs trying to win tonight and all of a sudden you’re up around 28, 29, 30 pitch mark and you lose him for the next day.”
Kimbrel threw 21 pitches Thursday and retired all four batters he faced, his only strikeout coming for the third out in the eighth inning.
“I hadn’t pitched in a few days, so it was one of those things, just getting back out there and making sure I threw the ball over for a strike and things like that,” Kimbrel said. “But yeah, it’s something where they asked before the game if I could go four outs, and I said absolutely. It worked out, and if that comes around again I’ll be more than willing to go out and do it again.”
His other four-out save was June 6 at Arizona, when he had the same pitching line: four batters, four outs, one strikeout.
“The more he can do that, the more we feel comfortable that we can use him in the postseason that way,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t feel comfortable yet using him two innings, but through the course of the year maybe if the situation’s right where he hasn’t pitched in four or five days, maybe you go five outs and keep working him that way (toward two innings).
“The pitch count is the biggest thing. And sitting down. You talk to some of those closers, they call come in pumped up in the eighth inning, and then they sit down (between innings) and the adrenaline kind of goes away and you’ve got to crank it back up in the ninth. So the more we can get him used to that, I think, the better he’s going to be experience-wise.”
Kimbrel was asked if he was more comfortable doing it now that he’d had a couple of four-out saves before the All-Star break.
“I mean, I don’t think you can do anything enough in this game to get used to it — it changes every single game,” Kimbrel said. “I’ve done it a handful of times (in his career). But, like, if the situation is there and they ask me to pitch, I go in and pitch and do my job.”
“I think the fact that I hadn’t thrown in about five days made it easier for them to lean towards doing that. I think that’s pretty much the reason why I threw (for) four outs tonight.”
