There are many varieties of closers but only two types of good ones: closers who can reliably save a game and closers who devour the hearts of lineups.
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I loved all of the closers, the side A and side B closers, and I loved the interlude track.
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Have patience Car salespeople are trained to be hard closers.
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Rivera, Hoffman and other decorated former closers do the voting.
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Power hitters and closers are abundant in the free agent pool.
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One of Beane's favorite strategies relied on the overvaluation of closers.
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And closers don't worry too much about every niggling little detail.
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As talented as the other postseason closers are, Rivera is different.
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Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said he has no plans to change closers.
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The arbitration figures for closers are always higher than those who aren't.
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More aces and wipeout closers will abound in the National League playoffs.
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For closers name and reputation matter but what is really crucial is experience.
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I do think these two signings (will carry over) to the older closers.
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All-Star rosters are stuffed with closers, not middle relievers or setup men.
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Its relievers and closers racked up 51 saves, the third-highest in the league.
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Davis, one of the majors' premier closers, had 19 saves when he was sidelined.
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And thousands of new people arrive in Greece everyday, undeterred by the border closers.
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I'll tell you what, setup guys have a harder role today than closers today.
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"Dame has to be one of the best closers in the league," Plumlee said.
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"People think that these horses are closers but they've won at six furlongs," says Emily.
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Both All-Star closers finished with 47 saves, and led their team to the postseason.
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And this is a series in which closers, not starters, have been the deciding factor.
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Familia, who is perfect in 2100 save chances, has been one of the best closers.
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It's fitting to begin at the end, in a sense, by focusing on the closers.
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As Mejia created trouble for himself, Familia became one of the best closers in baseball.
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Shouldn't they be treated almost as closers even if they are not piling up saves?
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From season to season, closers come and go, and the Yankees usually find a good one.
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In merger trials those closers are the economists who put the case together for the judge.
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Both teams rely heavily on their closers, the pitchers who enter in a game's final inning.
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But Britton is the closer, and closers generally pitch only with a lead in road games.
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Grande will take the stage again on Sunday, April 21st, acting as one of the festivals closers.
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Fans of the game she was working on at the time, Closers, inundated its creators with complaints.
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He's one of the best closers in baseball and we are definitely happy he's on our team.
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In fact, an analysis of 25,000 sales calls found that top closers listened 57% of the time.
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Gossage, next on the call list, agreed that the concept of two high-profile closers was crazy.
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Established closers like the Dodgers' Kenley Jansen, the Nationals' Mark Melancon and Chapman are all free agents.
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Both teams rely heavily on their closers, the pitchers who typically enter in a game's final inning.
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Elite closers, while essential for those pushing for the playoffs, are seen as luxuries on struggling teams.
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"I think closers a lot of time feed off adrenaline and feed off those situations," Girardi added.
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The best thing about this song, however, is how both verses could be respective closers on any track.
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The Yankees stockpiled relievers last off-season and dealt two of their closers in July for significant hauls.
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Only closers, Street explained, can count on having a direct effect on whether the team wins or loses.
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Across baseball, closers have been able to throw a scoreless ninth inning nearly 90 percent of the time.
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But after injuries KO'd three potential closers — Houston Street, Andrew Bailey and Cam Bedrosian — Norris inherited the job.
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So it's no wonder that relievers want to be closers, with all those chances to pile up saves.
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Good closers are an insurance policy — hand them the ball in the ninth inning and consider the game won.
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Or Alec Baldwin in "Glengarry Glen Ross" ("Coffee's for closers") or Michael Douglas in "Wall Street" ("Greed … is good").
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Delay raises the chance that such loophole-closers will never materialize, driving the cost of the bill even higher.
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And according to Reuters, Trump has authorized members of his Cabinet to act like "closers" on major weapons deals.
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On two successive six-minute closers, however, they either run out of ideas or mistake slowcore for a good one.
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Madson and Doolittle, acquired from the Oakland A's in a trade to give the Nationals reliable closers, made their debuts.
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Chapman served a 30-game suspension at the start of that season and has remained one of baseball's best closers.
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I don't think there are many closers who intentionally walk guys, and we haven't had too many we've done it with.
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They were losing to Milwaukee, 3-1, in the eighth inning and were facing Josh Hader, one of baseball's best closers.
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Chapman, 28, with a fastball that repeatedly registered at 105 miles per hour on Saturday, is one of baseball's best closers.
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With Smith and Baines set for induction in July, there could be a relatively crowded field of closers and designated hitters.
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But given the demand for proven closers, could he secure a bigger payday even though he will be 22018 next season?
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Closers get to pump their fists, untuck their jerseys or mime shooting arrows into the sky when the victory is secured.
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" A few songs later, however, and he's more reflective, channeling his beloved and much-cited influence Daniel Johnson on closers "Agony" and "Yellowman.
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Jansen joined former Los Angeles closers Todd Worrell and Eric Gagne as the only pitchers in club history with three, 23-save seasons.
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Besides Chapman, top flight closers Kenley Jansen of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Mark Melancon of the Washington Nationals are up for grabs.
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So Beane took so-so minor leaguers and starting pitchers who had begun to fade with age, and he turned them into closers.
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Teams have increasingly rewarded pitchers who are not closers at contract time, so perhaps it won't matter much if Familia logs fewer saves.
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But the label didn't have much use for bands making expansive masterpieces culminating with epic, 16-minute closers based on John Irving novels.
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Closers typically do not get much love from the Hall of Fame because for a long time they were seen as failed starters.
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In general, managers tend to hold back their closers too often, saving them in the hopes of preserving a lead that may never materialise.
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Manager Buck Showalter said the Orioles would rotate their closers — RHPs Brad Brach, Darren O'Day and possibly Mychal Givens or even LHP Donnie Hart.
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But they will also remember the trading deadline, when they did the right thing for their future but sacrificed two closers to do it.
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"You're facing certainly one of the best closers, and we made him work at the end of the game," Twins manager Paul Molitor said.
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Only the Astros' Ken Giles has actually punched himself in the face after a late Yankees blitz, but other closers have surely been tempted.
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Dink and Emily's theory that the horses sitting third through seventh would beat the closers isn't going to hold up with a pace this fast.
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They have already changed closers, with Matt Bush replacing the struggling Sam Dyson, and have recently lost center fielder Carlos Gomez to a hamstring strain.
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That, together with the summation of Brian McMonagle, one of the best closers in the business, was too much to get 12 people to agree.
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Perhaps, 20 years down the line, Openers pitching the first inning of the game will be as widespread as closers pitching the ninth now are.
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Kerr's introduction to the most dramatic of series curtain closers was the 22 Eastern Conference semifinals, when the Cleveland team he played for turned back Boston.
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The jab-and-duck is one of the most valuable distance closers for a shorter fighter and was used time and time again by Roberto Duran.
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While he will earn less annually than standout closers on free-agent deals, he will be paid around the going rate for a top setup man.
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"He's one of the best closers in the game, and helping him in the bullpen is going to be fun," Familia said of his new teammate.
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" Calling closers a "special breed," Scioscia said: "The last three outs, although logic tells you it's just another three outs, my experience tells me it's not.
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All innings count the same, yet closers, who handle the game's final inning, get much of the fame and the financial rewards that come with it.
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We are the ultimate closers, you are taught, embracing the winners-and-losers philosophy espoused in "Glengarry Glen Ross," David Mamet's play about real estate sales.
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In these types of negotiations, American presidents typically function as closers — taking over the process, after all the spadework has been done, to bridge the last gaps.
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Border closers throughout the Balkans, an EU-Turkey deal to stop sea arrivals in Greece and tougher asylum rules in Germany were among the main reasons, officials said.
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The Phillies, who have had their own issues with closers, were one pitch away from taking two of three from Washington for the second weekend in a row.
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Over all, the cuts, paired with loophole closers, would cost at least $3.4 trillion in revenue in the first 10 years and $5.9 trillion over the following decade.
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In her ruling, the judge also removed a prohibition on so-called "title closers" — the people who showed up at home closings on behalf of insurers — earning gratuities.
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Though 294 closers may not be the most effective way to build a staff, the role of the starting pitcher is another traditional baseball convention that may change.
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Dennis Eckersley -- one of the greatest MLB closers EVER -- says baseball HAS to extend the netting around its stadiums ... or else more fans are going to get seriously hurt.
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The right-handed reliever underwent an MRI that found a moderate left hamstring strain, leaving the Cubs forced to audition closers with just 103 games left in the season.
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If the Yankees are willing to move either of their two elite closers, Andrew Miller or Aroldis Chapman, there should be a long list of suitors, beginning with Washington.
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"If Ryan got a five-year contract, now the closers wanting a three-year deal want four, and the two-year guys want three," Gillick said at the time.
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They made sure to pack the bullpen that time: The Brewers had three star closers on their roster, and their starters were only a small fraction of their strategy.
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Three elite closers — Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon — are expected to be coveted by many teams, perhaps even the Yankees, who are intent on improving their pitching.
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In the hope of addressing their ninth-inning woes, the Giants lured Mark Melancon, one of the All-Star closers available this winter, with a record-breaking deal Monday.
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The Nationals' investment in Melancon was intended to fill a void at the back end of their bullpen after past issues with closers Rafael Soriano, Drew Storen and Papelbon.
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They are expected to pay special attention to the bullpen; three closers with strong track records are on the free-agent market: Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon.
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The E-tron can be optioned up to $81,800, which includes Audi's driver assistance package, massage seats, a heads-up display, and power door closers, among other hi-tech features.
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Speed riders break quickly from the gate and try to stay ahead; position riders are adept at saving ground and finding holes in the pack; closers ride best from behind.
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Reed records six-out save in Mets victory NEW YORK — Like most closers, Addison Reed is used to only getting attention when he has a bad night at the office.
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"Cookies are for closers" — a direct reference to Baldwin's character Blake from 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross — is both a line from The Boss Baby and one of its marketing taglines.
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His short, expletive-laced answer was: just about everything — analytics "nerds," bat flips, drug cheats and how Mariano Rivera (and other modern-day closers) had it easy throwing just one inning.
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Red Sox 63, Yankees 6 BOSTON — The Yankees' gold-plated bullpen, the one with more closers than Manager Joe Girardi can shake a binder at, imploded at the most inopportune time.
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In trading Chapman and Miller, the Yankees got seven new players (excluding Warren) in exchange for two closers while keeping Dellin Betances, a two-time All-Star and a closer in waiting.
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The winners were determined by a panel of five Hall of Fame relief pitchers - Hoffman, Rivera, Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers and Lee Smith - and two other retired closers, John Franco and Billy Wagner.
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Often this meant entering at the start of the ninth inning, with no runners on base and no threat underway, to earn a "save" — a statistic that brought closers enormous status and salaries.
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Barnette was even better last season, saving 41 games and tallying a 1.29 ERA, each a league-best among closers, to help push the Swallows to their first Japanese Series appearance since 2001.
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But then again, it doesn't happen ever in the history of the game where you have those three closers in the back end of the bullpen, back to back to back like that.
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All three posted ERAs under 22010, and Wickman and Hoffman each saved more than 22000 games, a big deal at a time when save totals and so-called proven closers ruled the day.
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On Baseball NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — You might think a $17.2 million annual salary, a new benchmark for closers, would be enough to get a five-year commitment to the Yankees from Aroldis Chapman.
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As relievers grew more prominent, 22016 saves in a season became routine in the 21.93s and 2000s because of closers like Dennis Eckersley, Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera, the career saves leader with 652.
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BuzzFeed News is still uncovering more cases from Guevara's 30-year career, during which he was known as one of the police department's prolific "closers," someone who was able to solve cases no one else could.
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Similarly, using closer Kenley Jansen in the seventh inning instead of the ninth was an insightful reversion to the old Goose Gossage fireman way of using closers, going not for the save, but for the win.
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Hence the New York Yankees entering the winter with two closers and exiting with three, the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros following suit, and ditto for the Baltimore Orioles, arguably the movement's now-forgotten progenitors.
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Three of the best closers in baseball — Kenley Jansen, Mark Melancon and Chapman — are free agents, and Cashman said he has already contacted the agents for Chapman and Jansen and plans to do so for Melancon.
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He made the deal just a day after Craig Kimbrel, one of the best closers in the game, ended a similar exile by agreeing to join the Chicago Cubs on a three-year, $43 million contract.
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In the run-up to deadline day, the Bronx Bombers dealt away a pair of closers, sending Cuban flamethrower Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs and Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians for more promising young talent.
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One crucial difference between baseball bullpen management and central banking: The case for using closers well before the end of a game is based on probabilities that say such tactics pay off over a 162-game season.
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The advent of the standardized ball was the final acclimation and soon Barnette blossomed into one of the most feared closers in Japan, saving 33 games with a 1.82 ERA in 2012, his second year in the role.
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They have had five exceptional closers in the past five seasons: Rafael Soriano, Rivera, David Robertson, Miller and Chapman — and that is not even counting Betances or Mark Melancon, a future All-Star closer they traded in 2010.
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Because of the unusually long relief appearance, Aroldis Chapman was forced to bat with two outs, and in a head-to-head matchup between the team's two closers, Cody Allen struck his counterpart out to end the inning.
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Diaz is terrific, but closers are relatively easy to find; two of the best this season signed discount free-agent deals last winter — Arizona's Greg Holland (one year, $22016 million) and Minnesota's Blake Parker (one year, $1.8 million).
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Twice the Astros have rallied against one of baseball's best closers, Kenley Jansen, and twice on Sunday they rallied against the best pitcher in baseball, Kershaw, who had dominated the Astros in a 3-103 victory in Game 1.
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"We continue to hire underwriters, processors and closers into our fulfillment group and we're also executing on opportunities to shift team members from other non-fulfillment groups into our fulfillment operation," said Tom Goyda, a spokesman for Wells Fargo.
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And because closers don't pitch to anyone twice in a game, by the time a batter has started to adapt to the sudden movement of Jansen's cut fastball, his signature pitch, that batter is typically headed back to the bench.
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With an extraordinarily deep bullpen filled with two relievers who have experience as closers — David Robertson and Dellin Betances — Girardi said afterward that Chapman's stuff was better than it had been and he was essentially done in by one bad pitch.
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Levine used a conference call with reporters who cover the Yankees to blast Betances' agent, calling Betances a "victim" and a pawn in a "half-baked attempt" to reset the market for relief pitchers who, like Betances, are not closers.
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He even started to follow the lead of other closers and developed his own save dance — an emphatic gesture in which he would raise both hands above his head and bring them down as if he were breaking a board over his knee.
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The Blue Jays won every game while eliminating two teams that did not use their closers: the Baltimore Orioles, who inexplicably left Zach Britton out of the wild-card game, and the Texas Rangers, who never found a spot for Sam Dyson.
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On one hand, the idea of changing a now hiring ad from "closers" to "losers" is very funny, but as many on Reddit were quick to point out: working in the fast food industry can be very taxing and is hardly a job for losers.
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Over the next few years, the supporting cast improved, ownership spending what turned out to be the last of the Madoff money on Carloses (Beltran and Delgado) and closers (Billy Wagner, which worked out, J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez, which, well, not so much).
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They're held back for a save situation, tasked with protecting a lead and getting the final three outs (although from the Cubs' Joe Maddon to the Dodgers' Dave Roberts, we've seen managers turn to their closers before the ninth a few times this postseason).
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In the ninth inning of tie games on the road, or in extra innings, many managers decline to use their closers, preferring to send out other relievers and wait until a closer can potentially enter the bottom of the inning with a save opportunity.
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"K-Rod" allowed a run after Verlander had pitched eight innings of three-hit shutout ball but there was none of the imminent collapse drama that has surrounded recent Detroit closers such as Jose Valverde, Joe Nathan and assorted others over the last handful of seasons.
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The closer's role is such a light lift for qualified pitchers—qualified by stuff or intestinal fortitude or whatever magic one attributes to closers other than "they pitch in the ninth inning"—that a team can trade down in the ninth and still convert saves at close to an optimal rate.
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The Yankees have a rich tradition of closers, from Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage to Mariano Rivera and, since Rivera's retirement, David Robertson and Andrew Miller, who was the American League reliever of the year last season but was moved out of the closer's role to make way for Chapman.
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Some managers don't like to use their closers if a save isn't on the line, but Clint Hurdle went to RHP Mark Melancon in the ninth Saturday, and the Rockies ended up scoring four runs against a pitcher who had gained saves in each of his seven most recent appearances.
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The pilots are the closers of the door-to-door world, a breed apart, with coveted jobs that pay some of the highest salaries in the marine business as they use state-of-the-art mobile navigation tech combined with a deft feel for ships, tides and wind that is as old as seafaring itself.
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In an appropriate touch, Smith and Rivera were the last two people to take the podium at Clark Sports Center, where an estimated 55,000 fans gathered on a warm afternoon for the ceremonies inducting the two closers as well as Harold Baines, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina and the late Roy Halladay into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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Taken on its own, the deal showed the Dodgers locking down one of the best closers in the game for half a decade; taken with their other moves, it showed the Dodgers willing to pay up in order to retain the core of a team that came within two games of the World Series last year.
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"He was at the very top of our list the minute we started putting together a list of relievers that might be available," Luhnow said of a rich market in which closers Zach Britton, Jeurys Familia, Brad Hand, Joakim Soria, Fernando Rodney and Roberto Osuna — also acquired by the Astros — were moved in July and August.
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The new album's earthy quiet blesses "True Love Waits" with its most breathless recorded incarnation—a skeletal, deconstructed piano chord fleshed out by bass notes and a splatter of countermelody—and in return, the threadbare directness of the lyric sharpens A Moon Shaped Pool's stark meditations on love to a point, lifting it to the pantheon of great Radiohead closers.
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Read more: 15-year-old American Cori 'Coco' Gauff — the heir apparent to Serena Williams' throne — has jumped 614 places in the world tennis rankings after one extraordinary seasonLess than two months after the initial suspension, Houston acquired Osuna from the Toronto Blue Jays for a bargain — barring potential backlash — considering his standing as one of the best closers in the MLB.
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EditorsNote: changes to "17 minutes" and "203 points" in 2nd graf; fixes "Luka" in fourth graf; fixes House's points in seventh graf Reserve guards J.J. Barea and Devin Harris played the role of co-closers and supported a balanced attack from the starters as the Dallas Mavericks won for just the second time on the road by throttling the short-handed Houston Rockets 128-108 on Wednesday.
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From its opening night program devoted to pioneering Black women directors like Julie Dash and Cheryl Dunye, to the heroines of its closers — Pam Grier, Regina Hall, and Odessa Warren Grey in Jackie Brown, Support the Girls, and Lime Kiln Club Field Day, respectively — It's All in Me departs from Hollywood's historic pigeonholing of Black actresses by quilting together the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that these women have asserted themselves onscreen across a variety of genres.
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