Ex-Red Sox Craig Kimbrel Confident After Costly NLCS Implosion

October isn’t former Boston Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel’s month — not by any stretch of the imagination, in fact.

When Kimbrel’s current club, the Philadelphia Phillies, called upon him to secure a very valuable Game 4 win, the right-hander failed miserably. Kimbrel blew a 5-3 lead in the eighth inning, allowing the Arizona Diamondbacks to snag a last-minute win and choking an opportunity to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.

That was Kimbrel’s second consecutive postseason nightmare in Arizona, yet the seven-time All-Star isn’t fazed one bit.

“I’ve been in the big leagues for a long time,” Kimbrel said postgame, according to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. “I’ve lost a lot of ballgames and I’ve won a lot of ballgames. The only way you come back and be successful is believe that you can. And I believe the next time I touch the ball, it’s going to be great.”

So far, not so great.

Kimbrel hasn’t been the slightest reliable, forcing the Phillies to play another two contests with a hungry Diamondbacks team amid a Cinderella run, thus, jeopardizing Philadelphia’s World Series chances.

That’s been an ongoing trend for Kimbrel, especially in recent years when called upon to take the mound in the playoffs.

Since 2018, when Kimbrel closed for Boston and had a hand in defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, the same story played out. When Red Sox skipper Alex Cora signaled to Kimbrel out of the bullpen, what should have been routine save opportunities became dramatic scenarios in which Boston barely escaped.

Proving time and time again incapable of shaking off the negative postseason stigma, Kimbrel’s recorded a brutal 4.91 ERA through 18 1/3 innings pitched in the playoffs since 2018.

Now, instead of resting up four wins away from a World Series title, the Phillies need to win two of three with Arizona in order to avoid elimination.