Chris Perez Impresses

May/20/08 09:16 PM Filed in: Chris Perez
ChrisPerez
Rookie closer Chris Perez wiped out the Rays in the ninth, disposing three hitters on five pitches. He got three harmless fly balls and picked up his first big-league win when the Cardinals scored in the bottom of the ninth. Perez throws fastballs in the middle-upper 90s. He has a slider that he can deliver at two different speeds; the slower one serves as a wicked changeup. And he’s a big guy who has an imposing demeanor on the mound. “He’s nasty,” Tampa outfielder Carl Crawford said.  

Manager Tony La Russa is quickly becoming a fan. “If he can repeat what he’s done for the last couple of days for the rest of his career, he’s going to be special,” TLR said. “He’s come in against a very good team, and he’s made pitches. The ball hasn’t been thrown all over the place. It’s been at or near the catcher’s mitt, with good stuff. I mean, that’s a tie game in the ninth and he handled it very well.”

Here’s another cool thing about the Perez outing on Sunday: He fired his first warm-up pitch over the head of catcher Jason LaRue and to the backstop. You don’t think the Rays noticed that? It won’t be comfortable for hitters to step in against this kid. He’s effectively wild.
And it’s a matter of time before La Russa pronounces Perez as ready for ninth-inning save situations. Until then? We’ll, frankly, it’s kind of silly. My pal Brian Stull of KFNS asked Ryan Franklin about pitching the ninth inning with a save on the line, which is a new role. And Franklin said: “I’m just going to pretend it’s the seventh or eighth inning.” And Stull asked Perez about pitching the seventh or the eighth, which he isn’t used to. And Perez said: “I’ll just pretend that it’s the ninth so it feels the same.” So you have Frankling pretending it’s the 8th inning when he pitches the 9th, and Perez pretending it’s the 9th inning when he pitches the 7th. I suppose one option would be to let them pitch where they usually pitch so they don’t have to do all of this pretending, eh?  Just kidding...

(stltoday.com)