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June 6, 2007
At the age of 37, and in his 13th big-league season as a reliever, Alan Embree has finally been thrust into the closer's role.
It wasn't exactly through any grand plan on the Athletics' part. Indeed, it took injuries to two other pitchers -- Huston Street and Justin Duchscherer -- to prompt manager Bob Geren to turn to Embree for those vital last few outs.
But so far Embree has made the most of his opportunity. Tuesday night the left-hander closed out a 2-0 win for Oakland over Boston, one of his eight former big-league teams. He hasn't been perfect -- he blew a save against the Sox on Monday night -- but he has gone 5 for 6 so far.
"It is weird to be 37 and now getting a chance to do this, even if it is only by default," said Embree. "But it's nice. It's different in a good way, one of the biggest challenges of my career. I'm grateful the manager has the confidence in me to give me this chance."
Embree has pitched as a setup man for several hot closers, notably Trevor Hoffman (San Diego), Keith Foulke (Chicago White Sox, Boston), Jose Mesa (Cleveland), Mark Wohlers (Atlanta), Gregg Olson (Arizona) and Mariano Rivera (New York Yankees). He did have one chance to establish himself as a closer -- in Boston.
"That was the year (2003) Grady (manager Grady Little) decided to go with the closer by committee," said Embree with a grin. "I came into the first game in Tampa, gave up a couple of runs and we lost. I had a sore shoulder, missed some time and the next save chance I had was in September."
Embree had eight career saves (four with Boston) in 708 games in the majors prior to this season.
-- Steven Krasner
Posted by Steven Krasner 
at 8:35 PM | Permalink
