Holland joins Royals' elite with 30th save

KANSAS CITY -- Closer Greg Holland joined esteemed company on Wednesday night, becoming just the fourth pitcher in franchise history to record 30 saves in a season. The others were Joakim Soria, Jeff Montgomery and Dan Quisenberry.

"I don't really concern myself with it that much, to be honest," Holland said. "It's nice to be in good company with other good players, other than that you have to try to stay in the moment and enjoy it and try to go win a ballgame."

Holland has 23 consecutive saves and a 0.96 ERA in that span and allowed just three earned runs in his last 28 innings pitched with 44 strikeouts.

He and the rest of the bullpen have been vital to the team's 15-4 run since the All-Star break, boasting an American League-best 2.80 ERA during that span.

"We feel really comfortable when giving them a lead and anytime we get insurance runs in the late innings with the bullpen coming in, it's a good feeling," first baseman Eric Hosmer said. "The game plan is just to get it to Holland and the guys have been getting it to him and doing a phenomenal job getting it to him. As a unit, they're doing a great job."

They are also the most rested bullpen in the league, working 308 1/3 innings. A year ago, the Royals' bullpen had the second-most innings pitched in the league.

With two extra-innings battles in New York and a short start by Danny Duffy on Wednesday, they're benefiting from the extra rest.

"All year, we haven't been used as much as we have in the past, just because of our starting pitching, so when it comes time for games like that [in New York] or even [Wednesday night] picking up the amount of innings we did, we're ready for that as opposed to last year when it was questionable who was going to be able to pitch that day," left-handed reliever Tim Collins said. "Sometimes we're going to have to pick up innings like that but we've been well-rested all year."