When the season opened it appeared that closing out games would be among the least of the problems that the Boston Red Sox would face. Koji Uehara was coming off another stellar campaign and had established himself as one of the league’s elite closers. He continued to dominate in that role until earlier this month when a line drive fractured his wrist, ending his season.
In Uehara’s absence the closer role has been passed down to Junichi Tazawa, who had performed well as the team’s setup man for the past several seasons.