Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.
Kirby Yates has won the Major League saves title in 2019.
Time has run out on all his challengers.
This marks the seventh time a Padres closer has won the National League saves title. And unless something drastic happens in the final two games of the season, Yates will finish with the lowest ERA of all the Padres’ saves champions -- Trevor Hoffman and Rollie Fingers led the NL twice and Heath Bell and Mark Davis each did it once.
Yates has a 1.19 ERA this season while, thus far, converting 41 of 44 save opportunities for a 93 percent success rate. Yates’ 54 career saves with the Padres ranks him eighth on the franchise’s all-time list.
The second-lowest ERA by a Padre who won the NL saves title was Hoffman’s 1.48 during his franchise-record 53-save season of 1998. The only other time a Padres closer finished with a sub-2.00 ERA while leading the National League in saves was Davis’ 1.85 ERA while compiling 44 saves during his NL Cy Young-Award winning season of 1989.
Other Padres to lead the NL in saves: Bell with 42 (2.71 ERA) in 2009; Hoffman with 46 saves (2.14 ERA) in 2006; Fingers with 35 saves (2.99 ERA) in 1977 and 37 saves (2.52 ERA) in 1978.
NOTEBOOK
• 3B Manny Machado on Friday night had his first three-hit game since July 29 against Baltimore and his first multihit game since Sept. 9 against the Cubs. His 31st homer is his first since Sept. 14 and only his sixth since July 20. Also, the homer was his first game-tying home run in the sixth inning or later since July 10, 2018, against the Yankees.
• Greg Garcia was 1-for-4 on Friday to extend his hitting streak to seven games. He is 8-for-22 (.364) during the streak, which also matches the longest hitting streak of his career. Plus, when Garcia singled in the first on Friday, he reached base for the seventh time in a span of eight plate appearances. He was 4-for-5 with three walks.
• RHP Craig Stammen has five straight scoreless appearances and has allowed only one run in his last nine appearances covering 9 1/3 innings.