Brad Ziegler's 43 consecutive save streak

The streak

Ziegler's 43 saves came against 19 of the 29 other teams in the majors, including at least one versus everyone else in the National. League. The Padres were his most frequent opponent (seven), just ahead of the Giants (six). The Rockies only gave Brad one save, so somewhat appropriate they were the ones to end it. Five times, Ziegler got saves on consecutive nights, six times, most recently on May 7th and 8th. Two saves involved less than three outs (both being two), and five were longer than one inning, peaking with a two-inning save against the Astros on October 4th. He allowed runs on just three occasions, a single run each time.

He did allow one or more hits most of the time (23 of 43), and only had 13 "clean" appearances (no hits or walks). But Brad racked up eleven double-plays over the 49.2 innings of the streak. This also helped Ziegler strand 10 of the 11 base-runners he inherited. Almost have the saves (21) were of the two-run variety, with the others evenly split between one- and three-run saves. As discussed previously, his toughest save was the one on June 13 against the Dodgers, worth +51.1% of Win Probability. At the other end, the 3-0 win over Milwaukee came in at only +3.1%. Oh, his performance in and last night's game, which ended the streak, at +22.8%, was "better" than 41 of the 43 saves in the streak.

Here are his lines for all 43 saves, plus the games which book-ended them. The links under date go to the full box-scores for each contest.

Where it stands in all of baseball

It's the seventh longest streak of saves by a closer, and the longest in the National League for a bit more than four years, since Axford saved 49 consecutive games through May 2012. Here's the top ten, which included every occasion of more than 40 saves in a row.

Interesting nuggets. No-one shows up more than once, perhaps demonstrating the volatility of relievers. The Padres are the only team with more than one mention. However, four of the ten listed pitched, at some point, for the Diamondbacks. [You're probably forgetting Tom Gordon,. who ended his career with 1.2 entirely forgettable innings here in 2009.] The obvious absence of one big name: Mariano Rivera. His longest streak can be found tied for 18th place, resulting from the 36 games he saved in 2004. He does have the #1 post-season save streak, with 23. Funny how the D-backs ended both that and Gagne's streak!

Where it stands for the Diamondbacks

This is the 19th year of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball and there have been only three streaks which have reached even half as long as Ziegler's. The first streak of any note was achieved by our original closer, Gregg Olson, in the team's first season, 1998, when he converted 22 consecutive save chances. That record then stood for more than 13 years, until J.J. Putz pushed it to 28, during the second half of the 2011 campaign, and through the early going in 2012. That remained the record until Ziegler overtook it early this year. Putz also has the #4 and #5 streaks on the list; here are all those longer than a dozen.

I was a little surprised to see Kim only just scrape onto the list, considering how dominant he was. His 2002 campaign, with 36 saves and a 223 ERA+, was one of the best ever by a Diamondback reliever. Quite a remarkable bounceback, considering what happened the previous October, something which could have destroyed his psyche. But I guess that proves, he did have his wobbles as well!

It's somewhat ironic that the streak ended in a game where Ziegler was not actually charged with a run. Maybe they need to revise the rule so that blown saves in that case, go to the pitcher responsible for the runner who scores the tying run, not the pitcher on the mound at the time. Because I'm pretty sure Ziegler saved last night's game for Arizona, in every meaning "save" for the sabermetric! For what matters is that the D-backs still won, in regulation. Here's to Ziegler getting back on the horse and beginning a new save streak, very soon.