PITTSBURGH (AP) - Jose Mesa is proving there's still a place in major league baseball for the routine save.
In this season of the lost lead and the blown save, closing out games has become an oft-repeated adventure even for star relievers such as Trevor Hoffman, Dan Kolb and Keith Foulke.
But while he pitches for a Pittsburgh Pirates team with decided flaws, Mesa has been nearly perfect.
Mesa turns 39 next week, an age when most relievers have long since become ex-closers, yet is a major league-leading 13-for-13 in save conversions. He has 23 in a row over the last two seasons, a span that has seen him convert 56 of 61 opportunities and become one of 19 relievers with 300 career saves.
Think that wouldn't look good to the Cubs, who've seen LaTroy Hawkins blow more saves (6) than he's converted (5) since late last season? To the Rockies, who have three times as many blown saves (9) as they have saves (3)? To the entire AL, which had five blown saves on Wednesday alone?
"To think he's almost 40 and still throwing 95 miles per hour ... it's almost unthinkable," manager Lloyd McClendon said. "He's a winner. That's easy to stick with."
Mesa has two more saves than the Royals (4), Devil Rays (4) and Rockies (3) have combined, during a season when those three teams - plus the Cubs - all have more blown saves than saves.
What's remarkable is the right-handed Mesa (0-1, 2.57 ERA) had to save his career just for the chance to keep saving games. A neat trick for someone best known by many fans for a blown save - Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, costing Cleveland its chance to finish off Florida.
Stripped of his closer's job by Phillies manager Larry Bowa after blowing four save chances in 2003, and barely used during September that season, Mesa didn't have a single major league offer before the 2004 season.
Only Baltimore and Pittsburgh proposed minor league deals, and Mesa chose Pittsburgh's offer of $800,000 in base salary and plenty of incentives (he cashed in $465,000 worth) because it was his best chance to remain a closer.
Getting 300 saves has been in the back of Mesa's mind since the Indians made him their closer in 1994, but keeping his job was more important.
"People thought we were crazy for signing the guy," McClendon said.
Signing joining the Pirates, Mesa has shed 15 pounds to get down to 230 and has stepped up what already was an extensive workout program.
