Yusmeiro Petit has been bouncing around between the San Francisco Giants bullpen and starting rotation the entire season. He has seven starts on the season and has come on in relief in the other 27 games, and managed to set an MLB record last night.
The 29-year-old right-hander set baseball's all-time record for consecutive batters retired with 46. The record was stretched over his last eight appearances, beginning with his last start against the Philadelphia Phillies. He then appeared in the next six games as a reliever and retired 37 straight batters over that span. Last night he shut the door on eight straight Colorado Rockies batters before the streak ended.
And interestingly enough, a fellow pitcher ended Petit's MLB-record streak. Jordan Lyles doubled off of the right-hander with two outs in the third inning and then scored after the next at-bat when Charlie Blackmon singled to left field. The inning ended when Petit retired the next batter, but the damage was already done as he broke Mark Buehrle's record of 45 consecutive batters retired accomplished back in 2009. The left-hander first threw a perfect game against the Rays in July of 2009 (27 in a row) and then pitched 5 2/3 innings of perfect ball against the Twins in his next start before walking Alexi Casilla to end the streak.
Petit looks as if he will remain in the Giants starting rotation after it was announced starter and longtime Giant Tim Lincecum will be moved to the bullpen, where he was once highly effective during the team's World Series run in 2012. That year, the right-hander was having the worst year of his career after starting 33 games and compiling a 10-15 record with a 5.18 ERA and a career-worst 107 earned runs. He gladly accepted his role as a reliever while the team went with starters Barry Zito, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong for the postseason rotation.
Petit and Lincecum share something in common: they're both good bullpen pitchers. As a reliever, Petit has pitched 52 2/3 innings with a 1.71 ERA. During the team's 2012 postseason run, Lincecum tossed 17 2/3 innings with a 2.54 ERA and gave up just nine hits while striking out 20.
The Giants hope their newest change will work as they hold the second wild card spot by 1.5 games over the Atlanta Braves and trail the Los Angeles Dodgers by 4.5 games for the NL West lead.
