Closer lullaby
Contributing Writer
He is know for his enthusiastic high-fives.
He is also now know as being one of the best relievers in the majors right now.
Oh yeah, don't forget he also has 11 saves out of 14 attempts.
He can close out games too.
He does this by throwing strikes, attacking hitters, and giving very few free passes. In fact, since 2010 the lowest percentage of hitters he has struck out in a season has been 31.6%. For perspective, the major league average reliever this season has struck out 21.7% of the batters faced. Koji Uehara has striking out 38.1% of the batters he faced in 2013.
That is 194 hitters faced, 74 strikeouts.
The highest walk rate he has had since 2010 is this year, with 4.6% of hitters faced getting a free pass. The MLB average reliever is walking 8.7% of the batters faced.
That is 194 batters, 9 free passes.
His ERA of 1.38 is 4th in the American League.
His walk rate of 4.6% puts him just behind a guy named Mariano Rivera who is 4th in the American League.
He is leading the American League in strikeouts to walks ratio, posting a 12.1 K/BB.
Combining all that with the enthusiastic personality and he has been one of the Red Sox impact players. He may not be on TV every night getting a Gatorade bath for hitting the latest walk-off homer, but he is lights out for the opposing hitters.
Koji Uehara has been worth his weight in gold this year and is starting to bring real fear into opposing teams when he climbs the hill in the 9th inning to sing his game ending lullaby.
The fear continues after that last pitch in his teammates when he bounds off the mound to find someone to explode high-fives onto, but we don't mind at all, do we?
Post a comment or via twitter @ericschabell with your thoughts.
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