Craig Kimbrel made baseball history Saturday night.
The Boston Red Sox closer became the youngest pitcher in Major League Baseball history to record 300 saves at 29 years, 342 days old when he recorded his ninth save of the season in Boston’s 6-5 win over the Texas Rangers.
Along with being the youngest, Kimbrel also is the fastest pitcher to reach the milestone.
To put just how dominant he’s been over the course of his career into perspective, the right-hander has had 330 save opportunities in his career. His 90.9 save percentage is the highest in the history of the game with a minimum of 250 save opportunities.
After the game, the team was waiting for their closer to get into the clubhouse. And when he did, they celebrated with him and “clapped for a really long time,” per NESN’s Guerin Austin. Kimbrel said he hopes there are “many more (saves) to come.”
Mookie Betts said after the game that the milestone couldn’t have happened to a better guy, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. Hanley Ramirez, meanwhile, took to Twitter to voice his happiness with No. 46 and his bullpen mate, Joe Kelly.
Huge team win! #DirtyCraig @kimbrel46 brought some serious #DirtyWater for #300 and so did @JosephKellyJr 👏🏽👏🏽#CeltSoxWin #Beantown
— Hanley Ramirez ⚾️ (@HanleyRamirez) May 6, 2018
Here are some other notes from Saturday’s Red Sox-Rangers game:
— The Red Sox are 13-5 on the road this season.
— Boston pitching combined to strike out 17 Rangers.
Eduardo Rodriguez was responsible for 10 of Boston’s 17 strikeouts, while Heath Hembree had three, and Kelly and Kimbrel each had two.
— Mitch Moreland was the only Sox player to homer in Saturday’s victory.
The first baseman has been successful against Texas pitching and his two-run homer marked his 10th hit over his last 19 at-bats against the Rangers.
— After Hembree pitched a perfect seventh inning, he got himself into a bases-loaded jam with just one out, so Cora made the call to the bullpen for Kelly.
“It was a good matchup for Joe, so we went with it,” Cora said. Kelly proved his manager right by ending the eighth with the two massive strikeouts to end the Rangers’ threat.
— Coming into the contest, Betts had homered in three consecutive games. That came to an end Saturday as the right fielder went 0-for-4, but did have a heads-up baserunning play that led to a run in the seventh.
Andrew Benintendi had a bloop hit to left and Betts caught the Rangers defense not looking his way, and he took off to cross the plate from first base. Betts said he anticipated the throw from left to go to second, but the throw never came and the right fielder capitalized.
“I needed to be aggressive and answer back after the (Joey Gallo) home run,” Betts said after the game.
Sox skipper Alex Cora had nothing but praise for Betts. After joking with reporters that “a lot of people are disappointed” the slugger didn’t go yard, he said the 25-year-old is becoming one of the best players in the league.
