DETROIT – Joe Nathan memorably collected the baseball from the final out of each of his 260 Twins saves. Now another Twin is doing the same.
It's a lot smaller collection, though. Justin Haley was presented the ball after Thursday's game to commemorate career save No. 1.
He hadn't expected the souvenir. Or the save.
"I was not" aware that he was eligible for a save in an 11-5 victory, Haley said. "I came in and everybody said, 'First save!' and I said, 'Ah, I don't think so.' "
Sure enough, though, if you pitch the final three innings of a victory — no matter how big the inherited lead — you qualify. The Twins hadn't had a reliever record 10 outs and earn a save since Brian Bass pitched four innings of a 12-5 win over Chicago on April 9, 2008.
"I'm just trying to be aggressive, throw strikes, and really, just eat innings," said the Twins' Rule 5 pick from last December. "The more innings I can eat up, it saves the other guys."
That's no small matter on a team so worried about limiting usage that it's carrying eight relievers.
"Haley did a great job. Only having to use two guys today, in a series where we didn't get a lot of depth from our starters" is a big help, starter Phil Hughes said. "To not have to burn anybody else is not something that will necessarily be written down in the paper, but it's something that really saves those guys."