On four occasions (1950, 1981, 1984, 1992), a relief pitcher had even won the award.
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John Axford, a relief pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, was used as the case study.
But now she appears as a relief pitcher in the big game, and the Democrats say she is throwing spitballs.
He went there, ostensibly, to remove Red Sox pitching ace Pedro Martinez in favor of a relief pitcher.
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"This is like your relief pitcher coming into the ninth inning and wanting to redo the whole game, " Orszag said.
No great surprise that the Goose, a fearsome relief pitcher in the 1970s and 80s, has made it to the hall.
Finding his groove as a short relief pitcher, Rivera has been blowing away American League hitters for 13 years and counting.
Yet how can the term rookie be applied to a 32-year-old superstar who is the greatest relief pitcher in Japanese history?
"I'm going to start the game with a relief pitcher, " Collins said.
"You don't have to have the 'C' on the jersey to know who the captain is on any team, " relief pitcher Brandon Lyon said.
Ramon Ramirez, a forgettable Mets relief pitcher in 2012, was in spring training with the San Francisco Giants last month when the butt dialer struck.
Then shuffled in relief pitcher Tyler Walker to blow the game.
"That's how you know somebody didn't do their job, " said Mets relief pitcher LaTroy Hawkins, one of the few active players who was in the majors when interleague began.
The McGwire controversy, not only shadows overwhelming first ballot elections of Ripken and Gwynn, but the candidacies of longtime hopefuls like relief pitcher Goose Gossage and slugger Jim Rice.
With the exception of a poor performance in his only start during Game Four of the National League Championship Series, Lincecum has been absolutely brilliant in his role as a relief pitcher.
The Phils were able to parlay some of the centerfield savings into the acquisition of relief pitcher Brad Lidge, who came through big time after a couple of rough years in Houston.
The recently overblown difference of opinion between Cashman and the Steinbrenner family over relief pitcher Rafael Soriano has undoubtedly punctuated an uncharacteristically disappointing offseason for the astute and normally persuasive Yankee executive.
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Relief pitcher Bobby Parnell grew a thick, bushy beard, while infielder Justin Turner paired his flowing, surfer-dude locks with a flame-red beard of his own (Parnell described the look as a "lion's mane").
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After Florida traded Mr. Bonilla to the Los Angeles Dodgers in May 1998, the Mets then re-acquired him that following off-season, sending relief pitcher Mel Rojas to the Dodgers for Mr. Bonilla on Nov. 11, 1998.
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His role is not unlike that of a relief pitcher in that he typically spends the first several innings of the game on the bench and has only a brief window usually one at-bat to make an impact on the game.
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Predictability has been the defining characteristic of the Mariano Rivera experience the knowledge that calling upon the lean relief pitcher was essentially to end a ballgame several outs early, extinguishing an opponent and giving the crowd a few extra minutes to gather personal effects.
Same goes for Blake Griffin, last year's top NBA pick who sat out his rookie season with a broken kneecap, and Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Joe Nathan, healthy and productive for seven straight years before going out with a shoulder injury this season.
In 2012 the Giants lost a superstar outfielder to performance-enhancing drug violations (Melky Cabrera), lost a star relief pitcher (Brian Wilson) to season-ending surgery, and lost their Cy Young award-winning starting pitcher (Lincecum), to what seems like the pressures born of a gargantuan contract.
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Upon deeper analysis, the correlation between starting-pitcher length and relief-pitcher reliability makes sense.
Twins pitcher Pedro Hernandez left a relief appearance on Friday with a strained calf.
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