He's baaaaaack (or we hope).
After Monday's extra inning victory over Toronto, Royals manager Ned Yost announced that Joakim Soria was back as Royals closer. In three games since being demoted from the closers role, Soria has pitched five innings of scoreless relief. He still has only struck out one batter in those three games, but he also has not walked anyone, nor has he allowed a hit.
Of the 17 batters faced since his demotion, Soria has gotten nine outs via ground balls, and has lowered his ERA from 6.55 to 5.33, while also picking up the victory against the Blue Jays to move to 4-3 on the season.
Aaron Crow moves back to the set up role in the bullpen, after not having a save opportunity since taking over the closers role on May 30th, after Soria imploded in a 10-8 loss against the Angels.
While this is very interesting that Soria had to do so little to get put back into the closers role, he certainly has looked optimistic over the past week and back to his old form. It will be interesting to see what happens when Soria is back on the mound in a save role.