After Huston Street tied a bow around San Diego's win last night with his thirtieth save, I got to wondering how many other Padres closers have reached that mark. I imagine they mentioned it on the postgame show, but living out here in Jedd's neck of the woods I'm not privy to such fine programming so I had to look it up.
Before I fired up the trusty ol' Baseball Reference Play Index, I made a mental list of the guys I thought had saved 30 games as a Padre. I came up with seven names. Turns out I got them all but I was still wrong. There have only been six. Much to my surprise, Goose Gossage never got 30 saves in any of his three years in San Diego.
The six pitchers in the club have combined for 21 seasons of 30 saves, led by exactly who you'd expect to top the list. Here's the leaderboard:
13. Trevor Hoffman (1995-'02, '04-'08)
3. Heath Bell (2009-'11)
2. Rollie Fingers (1977-'78)
1. Mark Davis (1989)
1. Randy Myers (1992)
1. Huston Street (2013)
San Diego has been without a 30-save man only three out of the past 20 seasons. Trevor saved 20 games in 1994, his first year easing into the role. When he lost nearly all of 2003 to injury, the late Rod Beck led the team with 20 saves. Most recently, Street finished with 23 last season due to some injury issues of his own.
The Padres' 40-Save Club is even more exclusive, consisting of just Hoffman, Bell, and Davis. Trevor did it nine times, Bell did it all three seasons he held the closer role in San Diego, and Davis did it in his Cy Young season. I look forward to adding Street's name to that list roughly a year from now. Or, hey, if things go really well in 2014, Huston could join Hoffy in the 50-Save Club.