{"id":84672,"date":"2025-06-06T22:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T22:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/84672\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T22:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T22:44:13","slug":"braves-calling-up-craig-kimbrel-from-triple-a-after-bullpens-7-run-meltdown-in-9th-inning-vs-d-backs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/84672\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves calling up Craig Kimbrel from Triple-A after bullpen’s 7-run meltdown in 9th inning vs. D-backs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craig Kimbrel<\/a> is returning to the Atlanta Braves<\/a> bullpen. The Braves are calling up their former All-Star closer from Triple-A Gwinnett, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Atlanta officially announced the move<\/a> on Friday, adding that reliever Daysbel Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> (2.22 ERA in 25 appearances) has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right forearm inflammation.<\/p>\n

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The decision was likely prompted by the Braves blowing a six-run lead in the ninth inning Thursday versus the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a>, leading to an 11-10 loss<\/a>. Atlanta took a 10-5 lead into the ninth. Three of Arizona’s first four batters reached base against Scott Blewett<\/a>, including home runs by Lourdes Gurriel Jr.<\/a> and Alek Thomas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Raisel Iglesias<\/a> relieved Blewett and didn’t fare better, allowing five of the next six batters on base with RBI hits by Ketel Marte<\/a>, Ildemaro Vargas<\/a> and Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a> resulting in four runs and an Arizona lead. Ultimately, five runs were charged to Blewett and Iglesias gave up the lead with the three he allowed.<\/p>\n

“We’re not a bad team. We’re a good team that’s playing bad,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said after the game<\/a>. “We’re all going to be miserable, and we should. We didn’t execute and put the game away, and we’ve got to do that.”<\/p>\n

With the loss, Atlanta dropped to 27-34, placing them fourth in the National League West<\/a> and 11 games behind the first-place New York Mets<\/a>. The Braves are also seven games out of the NL’s third wild-card playoff berth.<\/p>\n

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In 18 minor league appearances this season (15 for Gwinnett), Kimbrel has compiled a 2.00 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 18 innings with 8 walks and 9 hits allowed.<\/p>\n

Kimbrel, 37, pitched the first five seasons of his career with the Braves, collecting a 1.43 ERA and 186 saves in 294 appearances. He won the 2011 National League Rookie of the Year award and made four All-Star teams during his stint with Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The right-hander was traded to the San Diego Padres<\/a> before the 2015 season and he’s played for six other teams since then. Last season, he had a 5.33 ERA for the Orioles in 57 appearances despite a strikeout rate of 12.6 per nine innings and was released<\/a> in late September.<\/p>\n

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However, Kimbrel had a 2.80 ERA, 53 strikeouts in 35 1\/3 innings and 23 saves before the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, he can replicate what he did the first half of last year,\u201d Snitker said when Atlanta signed Kimbrel in the spring<\/a>. \u201cIt would be awesome if he could come in and do that.”<\/p>\n

During his 15 MLB seasons, Kimbrel has compiled a 2.59 ERA and 440 saves with a strikeout rate of 14.1 per 9 innings.<\/p>\n

Blewett’s outing was his last for the Braves. The team announced that he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles <\/a>on Friday for cash considerations. Atlanta was planning to DFA Blewett (5.51 ERA in 11 games) after Thursday’s game, but worked out a deal with Baltimore.<\/p>\n

It’s a return to Baltimore for the right-hander, who appeared in two games for the Orioles before being designated for assignment and traded to Atlanta. Blewett began the season with the Minnesota Twins, but received a DFA and was picked up by the Orioles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Kimbrel is returning to the Atlanta Braves bullpen. The Braves are calling up their former All-Star closer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[664,22,191,46,4166,5,192,847,2600,92,16566,729,1447,60,4,61,1086,125,104,18,467,12784],"class_list":{"0":"post-84672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-alek-thomas","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-atlanta","11":"tag-atlanta-braves","12":"tag-atlantabraves","13":"tag-baseball","14":"tag-braves","15":"tag-craig-kimbrel","16":"tag-era","17":"tag-eugenio-suarez","18":"tag-ildemaro-vargas","19":"tag-ketel-marte","20":"tag-lourdes-gurriel-jr","21":"tag-minnesota-twins","22":"tag-mlb","23":"tag-new-york-mets","24":"tag-ninth-inning","25":"tag-orioles","26":"tag-raisel-iglesias","27":"tag-san-diego-padres","28":"tag-scott-blewett","29":"tag-the-athletic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114638845880091841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}