Grant Robert Balfour is an Australian former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays / Rays, and Oakland Athletics. He is second all-time in saves and strikeouts among Australian MLB pitchers behind Liam Hendriks, and holds the Oakland Athletics consecutive save record at 44.
Balfour with the Tampa Bay Rays
In baseball, a save is credited to a pitcher who finishes a game for the winning team under certain prescribed circumstances. A pitcher earns a save by entering a game in which his team is winning by three or fewer runs and finishing the game by pitching at least one inning without losing the lead. The number of saves or percentage of save opportunities successfully converted are oft-cited statistics of relief pitchers, particularly those in the closer role. The save statistic was created by journalist Jerome Holtzman in 1959 to "measure the effectiveness of relief pitchers" and was adopted as an official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic in 1969. The save has been retroactively tabulated for pitchers before that date. Mariano Rivera is MLB's all-time leader in regular-season saves with 652, while Francisco RodrÃguez earned the most saves in a single season with 62 in 2008.
Mariano Rivera is the MLB all-time leader in saves.
Heath Bell is congratulated by San Diego Padres teammates after a save in 2009