Closing Time: Surprising Junior Guerra breakout continues

If any of you saw the Junior Guerra age-31 breakout coming … well, wow. Take a victory lap. Impressive stuff.

Guerra dominated the Nats on Monday, striking out seven and allowing just two hits and two walks over 7.2 scoreless innings, lowering his season ERA to 2.93. Highlights here. He’s sporting a 6-1 record for a 36-46 team, so you know he’s been dealing.

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Over the past decade, Guerra’s pro baseball journey has taken him to Hawaii, Venezuela, Mexico, Italy, every possible level of minor league ball, and, finally, Milwaukee. So he’s well-traveled. He has a fastball-splitter-slider arsenal with mid-90s heat, and he’s delivered a swinging-strike rate of 11.1 percent. Guerra hasn’t allowed a run over his last 15.1 innings, plus he had that 11-K game against the Cubs earlier this season. At this point, I can find no reason not to add him in mixers.

Guerra is only 36 percent-owned as of this writing, so do what needs doing.

• Neftali Feliz poached a save against the Cards on Monday, as Mark Melancon had pitched in three straight games for Pittsburgh. Feliz didn’t quite make it look easy (0.2 IIP, BB, H), but he managed to shut the door. No need to jump on him, obviously.

• Ryan Garton earned a two-out save for the Rays in less than dominant fashion (BB, H), though he did strike out Mike Trout along the way. I wouldn’t mess with Garton, however, because his ratios are messy and, more importantly, Alex Colome is expected back from the DL on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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• Tim Anderson remains on a roll for the White Sox. The rookie shortstop went 2-for-4 against CC Sabathia and the Yanks, hitting his fourth homer since being called up in June. Anderson isn’t a walker, but he’s been leading off for Chicago and he’s hitting .308 over his first 23 games. He swiped 49 bags in the minors last season, plus another 11 at Triple-A before his promotion to the bigs.

• Lance McCullers remains unattached in a handful of Yahoo leagues, and that really should not be the case. He allowed one run over 7.0 frames against the Mariners on Monday, striking out 10 and allowing just one walk and five hits. He’s struck out 66 batters in 53.0 innings so far this year, and he was excellent last season as well (1.19 WHIP, 129 Ks in 125.2 IP).

•Cesar Hernandez had another multi-hit performance for the Phils in Mondays win against Atlanta, his fifth in his last seven games. He’s 16 for his last 29, which is silly, raising his season average to .286. I’d hoped for more than four steals (in nine attempts), but I’ll take whatever he’s able to give.

• Houston prospect Alex Bregman homered twice on Monday for Triple-A Fresno, driving in three runs. Bregman has spent five games in the PCL, and he’s now 10-for-21 with four homers, nine runs scored and 11 RBIs. Here’s hoping he finds his way to the majors soon. He’s spent some time defensively at third, which is likely his best path to the big leagues. He’s decent stash for later use, if you have the bench space.