PHOENIX – Miami removed closer Heath Bell from that role before reinstating him earlier this season. The Angels demoted closer Jordan Walden after a sporadic start. Nothing like that is happening here. J.J. Putz will remain the Diamondbacks closer, manager Kirk Gibson said with an exclamation point Wednesday.
"Oh, yeah. No question," Gibson said at his pregame briefing.
"I just think he's the guy. He's our closer, and nothing's changed. It's as simple as that."
Putz, one of the D-backs' most valuable players while converting 44 of 48 save opportunities in 2011, gave up two walks and a two-out, two-run double in the ninth inning of an 8-7 loss to Los Angeles on Tuesday for his third failed save conversion of the season.
Putz had trouble locating his pitches Tuesday, an issue much of the season, and he has spent time over the last two weeks with pitching coach Charlie Nagy on tweaking his setup.
"The big thing last night was just the walks. That hurt, and then he missed with one pitch. Give him (Ivan De Jesus) credit -- he smacked it," Gibson said.
Putz is 0-3 with a 7.20 ERA in 16 appearances, 9 for 12 in save situations. He gave up two-run walk-off homers to Colorado's Todd Helton and Washington's Ian Desmond in his other failed conversions. Gibson refused to pin the D-backs' slow start on one player.
"It's not just J.J. You could look around to some of the games we've lost that we thought we should have won. You could go around to every position on the field. Not just pitching. You could blame the hitting. We haven't picked it up. We've made base-running errors," Gibson said.
"We just haven't put it together up to this point."
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