the.com/setup man
the reliever who hands the game to the closer, never gets the applause, never asked to sign the ball.
means a relief pitcher who enters in the seventh or eighth inning to protect a lead before the closer finishes the job.
from emerged as a defined bullpen role in the 1980s once managers started treating the ninth inning as sacred territory reserved for a designated closer, leaving the innings before it to a specialist.
stat categoryholds, invented specifically to credit them
pay gappaid far less than closers for similar stress
career pathoften a failed starter or future closer in waiting