ESPN

They were born in the days of the Goose and the Mad Hungarian. The role we call "the closer" was the man who came in to finish off the opposition, often pitching as many as three full innings in the process, on those scattered occasions when the starter couldn't go the distance.

Over time, the closer evolved into the exclusive ninth-inning go-to guy. To fill in the gap between the starting pitcher, who increasingly found it difficult to make it past the seventh inning, and the closer, a new creature emerged -- the set-up man. So huge was the impact of this new breed of reliever that the "hold" started to gain widespread acceptance in the world of baseball statistics.

Take a look at the bullpen landscape today and you're going to see signs that perhaps the closer might soon need classification as an endangered species. Milwaukee removes Eric Gagne from the closer role, but a few days later, he finds himself back in the mix, alongside teammates Guillermo Mota, Salomon Torres and Brian Shouse. On any given night, you never know who is going to get the chance to finish the game, and possibly nail down that elusive save.

In St. Louis, Jason Isringhausen has been woefully ineffective, and was just placed on the 15-day disabled list. Everyone presumes that Ryan Franklin will simply take over until Izzy returns, but would anyone truly be surprised if Kyle McClellan, Randy Flores or Ron Villone got the call tomorrow ... and then somebody completely different the following day? I don't think so.

The first step toward extinction has already been taken in Cleveland, where manager Eric Wedge announced Friday that he no longer will be using a traditional closer. With Joe Borowski still out with an arm injury, and not due back for some time, Wedge has declared that Rafael Betancourt will not be the only guy he goes to in the ninth inning. Wedge might still call on Betancourt from time to time, but he will use him interchangeably with Masa Kobayashi, Rafael Perez and Jensen Lewis. "I look at it like we have four guys I feel comfortable using in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, depending on the matchup and availability," Wedge said. "That's how I'm going to play it out. I'm not going to say somebody is or somebody isn't [a closer]. I feel we can be comfortable using all four of those guys."

How did things go on Friday? Lewis came into the game in the eighth after Perez had pitched 1 1/3 of scoreless ball, keeping the game against the Reds tied, 3-3. Lewis walked three batters, including Adam Dunn, which forced in the eventual game-winning run. Now, it's inherently unfair to judge the move on one game, especially when you add in the nerves Lewis probably had since he was pitching in his hometown on his 24th birthday. If Wedge's plan works over the long haul, especially if Borowski's return is delayed and we see this play out over a few months, perhaps other teams will consider this tactic in the future.

Prime candidates? Baltimore, where Friday night Matt Albers worked two scoreless innings, Jim Johnson struck out the side in the eighth inning and George Sherrill picked up the save. Or San Diego, where Cla Meredith and Heath Bell once again kept the opposition off the board, preserving a lead for the not-quite-so-young Trevor Hoffman, who in turn finished the Mariners off and got the save. In Arizona, Brandon Lyon was unavailable after three straight days of work, but it didn't matter. Juan Cruz struck out the side in the eighth and Tony Pena earned his first save of the season by pitching in the ninth.

• Past editions: 5/16: Yankees slump | 5/15: Sabathia's shutout | 5/14: Keppinger injured

Jayson Werth homered three times in his first three at-bats, including a grand slam, and tied a Phillies record with eight RBIs in the team's 10-3 win over Toronto on Friday. Ryan Howard continued his climb back from the batting depths with an RBI single, extending his hitting streak to eight games. … In the lone intraleague contest, Alfonso Soriano sent the first pitch he saw from Pirates pitcher Tom Gorzelanny over the wall for his third leadoff home run in four games. An inning later, he did it again, this time hammering a three-run blast out of The Friendly Confines. The Cubs' leftfielder has five homers this week, eight on the season, and has increased his batting average from .175 to .265 since coming off the disabled list. … Defense sometime does matter in baseball, or at least the lack of it, anyway. Elijah Dukes and Lastings Milledge misplayed a pair of balls against Baltimore, allowing Brian Roberts to reach third base for a triple and then score on Melvin Mora's catchable fly ball, which dropped for an RBI single. The run helped Garrett Olson improve to 3-0 since his late-April recall from Triple-A. Olson pitched five shaky innings, but it was enough. … Sometimes it turns on a dime. Johnny Cueto no-hit the Indians for five innings, then allowed sixth-inning blasts to Casey Blake, pinch-hitter Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta, allowing the Tribe to tie the game, 3-3, and leave Cueto with a no-decision. … Joakim Soria allowed his first runs of the season on a Jeremy Hermida home run but then struck out Hanley Ramirez and Jorge Cantu to earn his 11th save. … Chipper Jones returned to action after missing Thursday's game because of a sore groin, and he went 2-for-3 with a walk to raise his average at home to .459 on the year. Jones is now hitting .423 overall. … Brian Giles had four hits in a game for the third time this season, and Tadahito Iguchi added three more, including his second homer of the season, as San Diego beat Seattle, 6-4. … Josh Hamilton went 5-for-5, with two of Texas' six home runs, and drove in five runs in the Rangers' 16-8 victory over the Astros. Sidney Ponson was staked to an 8-2 lead in the contest but still couldn't manage to get the win; he allowed seven runs on the night, and his bullpen allowed the Astros to score another run the next inning to tie the game. Although only three of Ponson's runs were technically earned, it's still Ponson's fault because he committed the fielding error that allowed the unearned runs to score. … Also in that game, Lance Berkman extended his hitting streak to 15 games, and Michael Bourn stole his league-leading 18th base. … Streaks went by the wayside in St. Louis. Rick Ankiel went 0-for-4, ending his nine-game hitting streak, but the bigger news was that Albert Pujols failed to reach base for the first time this season. Pujols had hit safely in 14 consecutive games but had no answer for Tampa Bay's Andy Sonnanstine, who is now 6-1 on the season after carrying a shutout into the eighth inning against the Cardinals. … Randy Winn of the Giants got his 300th career double in a 2-0 loss to the White Sox. Winn now has an 11-game hitting streak and is batting .373 in May. … Minnesota's Nick Blackburn struck out five and walked none in seven solid innings of work against the Rockies to improve to 4-2 on the year. Delmon Young doubled twice and scored two runs in the 4-2 victory. In the loss, Colorado's Clint Barmes went 3-for-5 and raised his average to .355. Troy who? … Eric Byrnes hit his first home run since April 21 and also drove in a run with a base hit in the seventh to help Dan Haren and the Diamondbacks beat the Tigers, 4-3. … Joe Saunders won again, improving his record to 7-1, holding the Dodgers to two runs on five hits in the Angels 4-2 victory.