Koji Uehara doesn’t allow many baserunners. In fact lately, he hasn’t been allowing them at all. Uehara has retired 24 consecutive batters in a row. That statistic is a Boston Red Sox record eclipsing the previous mark of 23 set by Tom Burgmeier in 1980.
What may be even more amazing is how exactly he is doing this. To say this has been happening with smoke and mirrors may not be entirely incorrect.
Ken Rosenthal with Fox Sports had this to say about Uehara.
"Entering Thursday night, Uehara’s average fastball speed of 89.2 mph was the second slowest among closers with at least 10 saves, according to STATS LLC.Yet Uehara’s swing-and-miss rate of 36.3 percent ranked third, behind only Kansas City’s Greg Holland and — just barely — Cincinnati’s 100 mph man, Aroldis Chapman."
Uehara was fourth on Boston’s closer depth chart to start the season and now is one of the most efficient closers in all of baseball. He has averaged 13 pitches per inning since taking over the closer’s roll a couple of months ago.
If the Red Sox are going to make a push for the World Series this year, they are going to need Uehara to continue his dominance through the postseason.