Kinley allowed a leadoff single to Dylan Crews that brought the tying run to the plate, then rallied to strike out Jose Tena, Alex Call and Nasim Nunez in succession to end the ballgame. With all of the uncertainty in the Rockies’ bullpen at the moment, Kinley seems like as good of an option as any to close out games. He now boasts a 3.72 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and a 12/6 K/BB ratio over 9 2/3 innings on the season.

Kinley has mostly been very good in the second half, and he reemerged as the Rockies’ closer when Victor Vodnik was hurt, but he’s done for the year now after giving up three runs with the Rockies already losing Thursday. Vodnik will probably be the favorite for saves the rest of the way.

Kinley allowed a walk and an infield single before striking out Zach McKinstry to end the game. Viktor Vodnik, who was closing before getting hurt last month, pitched a scoreless seventh in this one. It’s still possible the Rockies could go back to Vodnik before the end of the month, but they don’t seem to be in any hurry to do so.

Kinley is suddenly on a nice little stretch. His slider forced five swings-and-misses in his lone inning of work and he hasn’t blown a save since August 12th. This is a great run, but the Rockies will return home next Friday for 12 of their final 15 games. Tread lightly.