BALTIMORE _ Tony Watson will remain the Pirates closer, manager Clint Hurdle said Wednesday, despite Watson's struggles in the ninth inning and the dominating performance of Felipe Rivero.
Watson allowed a two-run home run to Jonathan Schoop that allowed the Baltimore Orioles to tie the game in the ninth inning Tuesday. The Orioles won in the 10th. Watson has allowed multiple runs in four of his past nine outings.
"Fixed mindset, you change the closer and you put in Rivero," Hurdle said. "And there's an argument for that. The argument against that for me right now is I still believe our best bullpen sets up the way it's been working.
"We've done some digging and some searching, and we think we have some help for him. Felipe's pitched more leverage situations than anybody else on our team. There's a guy in the American League that's the best reliever in baseball that doesn't have a save."
Hurdle was referring to Andrew Miller, a postseason hero for the Cleveland Indians in 2016 who has 40 strikeouts in 271/3 innings and a 0.33 ERA this season. He has mostly pitched the eighth this season but has also pitched in the seventh and ninth innings.
Juan Nicasio was another option Hurdle considered.
"There's an argument there, because you put him in for one inning, let him let it eat," Hurdle said. "That's something that was real and was given some serious though. However, I've always been on record, I want to be the first believer and the last believer, and show confidence sometimes where there may not be a lot of other confidence. (GM) Neal (Huntington) and I had a conversation. Neal's right where I'm at. (Pitching coach) Ray (Searage is) where I'm at. We want to give (Watson) an opportunity here that, we think we found some help that can get him right."
Watson said he did not think the heavy workload during his past six seasons in the majors had any bearing on his performance.
"I think its just one of those things where you're just fine-tuning things and you can't exactly do that in the ninth inning," Watson said. "You're not trying to just get your work in, you're competing, and it just hasn't worked out the last couple times."
Rivero has an 0.60 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 30 innings this season.
