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St. Louis is in a bind. Before play on Tuesday, the Cardinals are longshots to win the division trailing the Cubs by 7.5 games. They are just 2.5 games back of the Brewers however and have a real shot at the postseason. In fact, they would probably be in the wild card lead right now if not for the ineffectiveness of the bullpen this season. Jason Isringhausen entered the year as one of the most consistent closers of the past few years yet he fell apart spending several weeks on the disabled list interspersed with ineffective innings on the mound. His replacement, Ryan Franklin, was a modest stopgap and had some success for awhile before morphing back into, well, Ryan Franklin which is to say he’s just not very good. The pair is appropriately tied for the major league in blown saves with seven each. If just three of those 14 games were finished off the Cardinals would be in position for the playoffs right now.

So what can manager Tony La Russa do now? Adam Wainwright is on a rehab assignment and could come back to shore up the bullpen. The injury to Chris Carpenter complicates matters leaving a hole in the rotation. I have to believe Wainwright will be utilized in his more valuable role as a starter when he returns. Carpenter has missed over a year to injuries and can’t be relied on to pitch every five days for the rest of the season. That should leave the closer role to rookie Chris Perez who looks ready for the role in his second stint at the major league level. Perez was recalled on August 6 and since then he has thrown six innings allowing zero runs and just two hits with an impressive nine strikeouts. He has four saves in that span. With fellow rookie Kyle McClellan lending some stability as a set-up man, La Russa would be wise to stick with Perez as the closer and allow Wainwright, one of the best pitchers in the NL, to return to the rotation.

Perez’s ranking is held down a bit at No. 23 because of the outside possibility he doesn’t keep the closer role for the rest of the season. Adam Wainwright checks in at the bottom of the rankings in the unlikely event he comes back in the bullpen.

On to the bullets:

• A change at the top of the rankings this week as Francisco Rodriguez has blown saves in August allowing five runs while recording just one out in each of those two outings. Meanwhile, Jonathan Papelbon hasn’t blown a save since June 22. K-Rod still leads the world in saves with 47 for the season, although both Brad Lidge and surprisingly Trevor Hoffman have more saves over the past month.

• Lidge had been complaining of being thrown off completely by his All-Star game appearance when he threw over 100 pitches warming up in the bullpen. He looks finally recovered from that experience though as he has given up just one run over his last 9.1 IP. Prior to that streak he had given up seven runs in a span of four outings. He leads the majors with nine saves over the last month.

• Cleveland manager Eric Wedge seems to be the one baseball man thinking out of the box. It seems he understands the value of outs in high leverage situations, and frequently uses his best pitchers in the middle innings when there are more outs to record. Last year he did this by using Rafael Perez and Rafeal Betancourt in set-up roles and using Joe Borowski as the closer. This year, after Borowski, Betancourt, and Masa Kobayashi completely failed in the ninth inning, Wedge has turned to Jensen Lewis to close keeping Perez in the middle innings.

Clearly Perez is the better pitcher, but Lewis isn’t a bad option to use for the final three outs. He has already saves three games without incident. While the walk rate (4.10 BB/9) is worrisome, Lewis succeeds by stranding runners (78.9% LOB) and keeping the ball inside the park (0.58 career HR/9). AccuScore projects him to be solid the rest of the way with six saves, a 3.44 ERA and 1.47 WHIP. Over just 18 innings those ratios won’t hurt you.

• Billy Wagner still has pain and swelling in his elbow as of Tuesday (8/19) so don’t expect him back anytime soon. Given his age and injury problems this year I wouldn’t count on him at all down the stretch. It is unknown when Wagner will resume throwing, and there is just one month left in the season. Aaron Heilman will continue to head up the mess that is the Mets’ bullpen by committee.

• Big downgrade this week for Francisco Cordero. He’s been flat out bad lately with a 7.36 ERA and 1.91 WHIP over the past month. He has just three saves and two losses in that span as well. The Reds already weren’t very good, and now without Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn, they are rarely in position to win. Cordero has thrown just twice in save situations in August in seven appearances.

• So long Huston Street, hello Brad Ziegler. The sidearming rookie has taken control of the closer role, and went the first 38 innings of his career without allowing a run. Granted, he has given up runs in his last two outings, but both were two inning stints and one was a save. He now has three saves overall, two of them coming in two inning outings. No one can argue against the 0.43 ERA but the weak K/9 and K/BB numbers (4.29 and 1.54 respectively) are a bit of a concern in the long run. Street is completely buried in the bullpen for the A’s, although he could reemerge next season as a closer likely in another city.

• John Grabow has been solid for the Pirates with four saves and a 1.35 ERA in August. His tenure as closer has come to an end however as Matt Capps looks ready to return from injury. Capps will pitch once more at Double-A Altoona on Wednesday and is schedule to rejoin Pittsburgh on Friday. He also shed 15 pounds during his time on the disabled list in an effort to stay healthy. Capps believes the extra weight contributed to his shoulder bursitis that has kept him out of action since July 1.

• With C.J. Wilson out for the year, Eddie Guardado becomes the man in Texas. Everyday Eddie’s numbers look great: 3.21 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. That’s clearly not the whole story however as his BABIP is just .222 and his home run rate is abnormally low at 0.57 especially given his home park and flyball tendencies. Expect a correction to come soon. He’ll get saves, but likely with much worse peripheral numbers.

• Troy Percival was able to avoid surgery on his injured knee and now expects to be back when he is eligible to return on August 30. Officially it’s closer by committee right now, but Dan Wheeler has gotten the last two saves. He’s the guy you want to own while Percival rehabs, and Grant Balfour is number two.

• Kerry Wood is back in the closer role and looks fine. Carlos Marmol goes back to a set-up role, and appears to have rediscovered his mojo as well. Marmol could still steal a save or two in relief of Wood.