The Chicago Cubs have by far the best record in baseball at 24-6. With 24 wins in just 30 games, one might assume their closer would be at or near the top of the league in saves. Such is not the case for Cubs reliever Hector Rondon, and his teammates are loving every second of it.
Rondon is tied for 12th in the National League with just six saves on the season. Veteran catcher David Ross recently joked that the Cubs are scoring runs late in games just to “screw” their closer.
“When you’re on the bench and you’re up three runs, two runs, whatever, we have a game we call Screw the Closer,” Ross told reporters, per Jesse Rodgers of ESPN.com. “We want to score more so he doesn’t get the save.”
The most important thing is that Rondon has not blown a save. When your team leads baseball with a run differential of +102 (nearly double that of the next-best team), there aren’t going to be many opportunities. But the Cubs also rank second in the MLB in runs scored in the 7th inning or later. That has led to a lot of warming up and then sitting down for Rondon.
“I think 4-5 times already I got up [then down], but it doesn’t bother me,” he said Sunday. “[Anthony] Rizzo and [David] Ross, they laugh all the time. Sometimes it’s kind of funny what those guys are doing late in the game. It’s much more important we win the game. They come tell me they like to ‘screw’ me up.”
When you’re winning a whopping 80 percent of your games, not presenting your closer with save opportunities is a very good thing.
Photo: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
