When relief pitcher Mark Melancon struck out the side in the ninth inning Monday, he continued his recent string of success as the Braves’ closer.
It was his seventh scoreless outing in his past eight appearances and his eighth save in eight save chances since the Braves acquired him from the San Francisco Giants on July 31.
“I think the last two or three months I’ve thrown well,” Melancon said Tuesday afternoon at SunTrust Park, several hours before the Braves played the Toronto Blue Jays. “But I think since I’ve been here, it’s been good, really good.”
Melancon was one of baseball's best closers a few years ago, recording a National League-leading 51 saves for Pittsburgh in 2015 and 47 saves in a 2016 season split between the Pirates and Washington Nationals. After signing a four-year $62 million free-agent contract with the Giants, a complicated forearm injury sidelined him for chunks of the 2017 season, required pronator muscle surgery in September 2017 and continued to bother him throughout 2018. He finally felt 100% healthy again this year.
Melancon wound up working mostly setup and middle relief roles with the Giants and was initially slotted for an eighth-inning role with the Braves. But the 34-year-old right-hander, a three-time National League All-Star, quickly emerged as their closer.
Asked if he thought during the past couple of years that he would find his way back to a closer’s role at some point, Melancon said: “Yeah, I thought I would. It’s just one of those things that if somebody (else) is going well, why change it? And the way bullpens are these days, every role is extremely important. You have so many deep bullpens now that (teams) create these super bullpens. It’s a good thing.
“I love coming in in that (game-on-the-line) situation,” Melancon said, “but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the seventh, eighth, sixth. There’s a lot of opportunities for that situation. But I like being in the ninth. I’ve always enjoyed it.”
He allowed four runs in one-third of an inning in a non-save situation at Miami on Aug. 10, but otherwise has allowed just three runs in 12-1/3 innings with the Braves (through Monday). He has held the opponent scoreless in 12 of his 15 appearances with the Braves.
Monday’s save was Melancon’s third in four days and the 191st of his big-league career.
