PLAYING TIME: Yet more closer news: Balfour, Francisco

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Fuentes replaces Balfour as OAK closer

After Brian Fuentes (LHP, OAK) notched his second save of the season May 12, manager Bob Melvin confirmed that Fuentes had bypassed Grant Balfour (RHP, OAK) as the team's primary ninth-inning option. While Balfour had blown only two saves on the season, he had also been scored on in three of his last five outings and four of his last seven. Perhaps the largest contributor to that lack of success has been Balfour's Dom, which, after slowly declining the last few seasons has taken a more dramatic dip so far this season down to 6.1, which is less than ideal for a stopper. Balfour had been yielding fewer fly balls, but just as many were ending up as line drives than as grounders,...

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