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Historically, writing “-30-” in a newspaper article signifies the end. But when writing about Ryan Helsley, the end is the beginning. The end is the story. The Cardinals closer now has 30 saves this season. And since blowing a save on opening day, he’s had 30 save opportunities and 30 saves — 30 for 30. It’s the longest active streak in baseball.
Credit Oliver Marmol. The Cardinals manager and his pitching department decided to use Helsley only in one-inning stints in 2024, with that inning being either the ninth or later.
And Helsley, who turns 30 on July 18, now is the best closer in Major League Baseball.
On a sunny Sunday at Busch Stadium, he recorded his MLB-best 30th save, tying Hall of Fame closer Lee Smith (1993) for most saves by a Cardinal by the All-Star break. Oh, and the Cards (43-40) still have a dozen games until this year’s All-Star Game.
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“When you have the lead in the ninth, you expect to win,” Cardinals outfielder Alec Burleson said. “And now, we know we’re going to win the game with that guy in.”
It’s kind of wild to think — Helsley was the closer the previous two years, but he entered this season with 35 career saves. Now he has 30 in this season alone. And he’s doing it without his best pitch being his best pitch.
“My last month or three weeks, I’ve felt like I kind of lost the feel of my fastball, wondering how it played,” Helsley admitted after Sunday’s 2-0 win against the Reds.
If you haven’t noticed, the triple-digit flamethrower had been erratic with his four-seam fastball in June. It’s caused problems (not for the batters, like it normally does, but for Helsley himself). Entering the Cincinnati series, Helsley had allowed hits in five of his previous eight games. Even worse, he had allowed 10 total walks in the eight games.
Still, not one blown save.
Why?
Because his breaking stuff has been elite.
Now, much often is made about his slider. Last year, he threw it 36.7% of the time. This year, it’s up to 49%. But his curveball has been nasty. Dastardly.
Take Sunday afternoon.
In the fifth inning, two pitches were thrown dangerously inside to Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras — and a third indeed hit him.
As the angry Cardinal shouted at the Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene, one wondered if the Cards would, thus, throw at Cincinnati star Elly De La Cruz?
But it was a 1-0 game at the time.
The Cardinals, you would have to think, didn’t want to risk the base runner. Yet something possibly more painful proceeded to happen to De La Cruz.
In a ninth-inning at-bat, he was humbled and humiliated for all to see. After Helsley got him to miss two 100 mph fastballs, Helsley whipped an 84 mph curve. And De La Cruz swung like he was wearing a blindfold.
He was more than a foot away from the ball.
“I threw (the curveball) a lot more in the minor leagues as a starter ... but I’ve gradually gotten that feel back from throwing it again,” Helsley said. “It’s hard having three good pitches if you don’t work on them all the time. So I tried to emphasize that in the offseason and just getting comfortable with that. ...
“And (with the offseason), I was just kind of upset with myself with not being healthy all year last year (because of a forearm injury). That was just my main goal in the offseason, to make sure I could do everything I can with diet or recovery or offseason training. What kind of tweaks could I make to be healthy enough?”
Yeah, he looks healthy.
How good is this streak?
Only 11 times since 2015 has a pitcher had a save streak longer than 30 games.
And his 12 saves for June were the most by a Cardinal in a month since Edward Mujica had 12 in May 2013. (It’s interesting that for all of his dominance, Trevor Rosenthal never had 12 in a month.)
After Sunday’s win, which kept the Cardinals in a wild-card playoff spot, Marmol talked about the club’s conviction. Not just a conviction to make the playoffs but to win the National League Central title — impressive, considering at one point, his now second-place team was nine games below .500 and still trails division-leading Milwaukee by 6½ games. But without consistent contributions from Nolan Gorman, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, it’s been other names who have lifted the Cards into contention. And really, except for the first game, Helsley has done so in all his other games.
He epitomizes the mindset.
“I got drafted in 2015,” Helsley said. “And last year was the first year at any level I didn’t make the playoffs. So I think it’s kind of understood for a St. Louis Cardinals player that you strive to make the postseason and make a deep push. And last year was tough for everybody. You know, nobody likes losing. Everybody showed up in spring and everybody’s fighting like crazy every day to put their best foot forward.”
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