Eric Gagne Blows His Fourth Save

This is getting ridiculous. Tell me if you've heard this story at all recently: the Brewers entered the ninth inning today with a one run lead. To close the game out, they turned to "closer" Eric Gagne. A walk, a hit batter, and a fielder's choice later, the game was tied and headed to extra innings, where the Brewers bailed Gagne out in the 12th.

Today's scene took place in St. Louis against the Cardinals, but it's the fourth blown save by Gagne this year and the third time the Brewers bailed him out and still managed to win. It's nice for the Brew Crew that they've been able to overcome Gagne thus far, but it's not something I'd be counting on happening again and again.

I want to say it's hard to read Gagne's performance thus far this year (12 strikeouts in 8 and 2/3 innings is impressive), but man, he hit Cesar Izturis today and Izturis turned into the tying run. That dude's a worse hitter than like half the pitchers in the National League. When you're beaning Cesar Izturis, it's a pretty good indication that you have no idea where the ball is going when it's leaving your hands. It's time to give someone, Salomon Torres, David Riske, Brian Shouse, no, anyone else a shot at nailing down the end of these games.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-22-2008 @ 7:56PM

pitchcount said...

In Gagne's defense -- and I hate to do that, since I'm a Red Sox fan -- a) it wasn't really a fielder's choice (yeah, I know, you never assume the double play, but Rickie Weeks' throw was so bad, the bounce it took off Fielder's glove was kind of hilarious), and b) the reason why they only had a 1-run lead was because Riske and Shouse allowed 4 runs between them, with a little help from Torres walking Pujols on four pitches with the bases loaded to let in Shouse's baserunner.

Of course, Gagne still let runners on the corners with nobody out, and for that matter, the count was 3-2 when he hit Izturis. There must be somebody in that bullpen who can actually convert saves, but it sure isn't him. It's gone from funny to pathetic all the way back to funny again.

(Oh, and the Brewers played at home in Milwaukee today, not St. Louis, and it was a hit batter followed by a single (which is how Izturis got to third), not a walk followed by a hit batter.)

4-22-2008 @ 11:57PM

JKlicious99 said...

As a longtime Brewer fan, I say this most emphatically.....Gagne needs to go! I wish we could get him and Turnblow one way tickets on the local Greyhound bus to anywhere but here. I'm sick and tired of this crap already, it's not even a month in to the season yet. For crying out loud Melvin!!...get rid of him. I'll call it right now, if the Brewers don't release him, they will not make the postseason. Before the season started, I cringed when I had heard we signed this guy to a 1 year 10 million dollar deal. Three weeks into the season, I'm still cringing. This is frustrating and what makes it even more so is that I'll read the paper tomorrow and I will see Yost and Melvin making excuses for the guy.....again!Argghhhh!!

4-23-2008 @ 8:20AM

Actually, JKlicious99, you might find this interesting:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AtYi3BIBwU9z0iQu_02MORqpu7WoeYF?slug=ys-accuscoreclosers042108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

I agree Gagne sucks (I'm a Red Sox fan who just happened to be watching the Cardinals-Brewers game because both teams have some players I find interesting, I know all about Gagne sucking... it's like somebody put the evil eye on the guy when he left Texas), but there's a whole lot of blown-save weirdness going on right now, and, as the article says, Gagne's four blown saves have only cost the team one win; they won the other three games despite him. Thus far he's not hurting their chances much.

4-23-2008 @ 9:21AM

That chart is interesting. Of course Gagne would be at the top of it. Yea, I'm glad that some of Gagne's teammates have bailed his sorry butt out and they were able to pull a victory out. That can't keep up though, it's unreasonable to think he can just keep blowing saves and someone comes to his rescue everytime.