All closers, no matter how great, go through a period when they don’t seem quite right. Usually, it lasts for a week or two, and people start wondering about whether something is amiss that won’t be fixed. In New York, it happened to the great Mariano Rivera at the beginning of the season, when he yielded five of the 11 earned runs he’s allowed in a stretch of late April and early May.

His current superbad numbers include 36 saves and a .91 WHiP.

During Joe Nathan’s recent “slump,” which covers his last four appearances, he is 1-0 with 3 saves, bringing his superbad numbers for the season to 34 saves and a .93 WHiP. He had a similar short stretch around this time last season, when he had two blown saves and a loss at the end of August and beginning of September. Seems like he recovered from that.

During the current “slump,” Nathan has allowed 11 baserunners in 5 innings. Some of those seven hits were solid and he’s walked as many batters (four) as he did in all of June and July. He’s added more drama to those four games than we’re used to seeing.

To me, the other interesting stat is that he’s thrown 122 pitches in those five innings. In all of June, he threw 159. It’s more interesting than meaningful, however.

Yes, he hasn’t been the lights-out, go-home now Joe Nathan that we see 95 percent of the time and expect to see 101 percent of the time.

But I’d bet big on him snapping out of the current “slump,” and making anyone who’s asking “What’s wrong with Joe Nathan?” look pretty foolish.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 9:50 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.