The accidental closers: Coke, Romo thrust in key roles

• Sergio Romo took over Giants' closing role after Brian Wilson's injury
• Phil Coke saved two of the Tigers' four wins against the Yankees
• Romo went 14 for 15 in save opportunities to take over the closer's role for the Giants

SAN FRANCISCO -- One rushes out of the bullpen as if someone had set it on fire. The other enters the game to the strident sounds of Banda MS's raucous El Mechon.

One throws a 95-mph fastball that often doesn't behave the way it was intended to.

The other rarely touches 90-mph with his fastball, but struck out 14 for every batter he walked in 2011 because of uncanny command and a slider that's often compared to a Frisbee.

They both have a zany side to their personalities and neither was supposed to be performing in his current role, especially not in the World Series.

The Detroit Tigers' Phil Coke and the San Francisco Giants' Sergio Romo, though neither is officially designated as his team's closer, figure to be asked to get the final outs in games that may decide this year's championship.

They're accidental closers, hoping to continue riding their current hot streaks.

Coke, 30, was the Tigers' main left-hander out of the bullpen — and not a very successful one — during the season, then found himself thrust into the closer role when incumbent Jose Valverde faltered badly in the playoffs.

All Coke did was pitch the final inning of the Tigers' last three wins in a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, saving two of them.

The series may not have been such a wipeout — only Game 4 was decided by more than three runs — had Coke not suddenly found command that escaped him much of the season, in which he had a 4.00 ERA and one save.

His signature moment, of course, was a full-count strikeout of Yankees playoff hero Raul Ibanez with two runners on base in Game 3, sealing a 2-1 Detroit win. The moment will be etched in Tigers lore, even if Coke is not sure what happened just before.

"There's at-bats I don't remember,'' he said. "I don't remember exactly how I got to 3-2 to Ibanez and threw him a slider.''

Asked afterward what he was thinking as he delivered the key pitch, Coke cracked up the room when he replied, "Don't hit it, don't hit it, don't hit it, don't hit it.''

That's reflective of a fun-loving attitude Coke says is crucial to his success. He noticed early on growing up in the Northern California town of Sonora — as a Giants fan, no less — that the harder he tried, the worse he performed.

"When I allow myself to let it happen is when I seem to excel, and I've been that way since I was a little kid,'' said Coke, known for sprinting to the mound when he gets the call.

"It's been kind of a life lesson for me, because I'm rather intense depending on the situation.''

Romo's intensity is harder to detect behind his bushy black beard, but it's no less present.

A highly effective setup man the last three years — he's had strikeout-to-walk ratios of 5-1, 14-1 and 6.3-1 in that span — Romo became part of a bullpen-by-committee approach Giants manager Bruce Bochy used during the second half of the season in the absence of the injured Brian Wilson.

But Romo emerged toward the end as the most reliable closer, going 14-for-15 in save opportunities.

"I'm very privileged to have the title and role that I have,'' said Romo, 29. "I'm asked to be someone a little bit bigger than I really am, so I go out with the mentality that I have to be on my game.''

At 5-10 and 185 pounds, Romo hardly fits the prototype of the fireballing closer managers prefer.

Still, Romo has averaged 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings in his career, thanks largely to a sweeping slider he throws with a grip he says is different from other pitchers. He won't reveal details.

"I have to be a pitcher. I can't just go in there and rear back and hope no one hits it,'' Romo said. "Location is everything for me, location and movement. ... I've never thrown hard. I've always been crafty.''