Poche, who earned his sixth hold in an extra-innings loss to the White Sox on Saturday, had allowed nine earned runs over his three prior appearances and owns a 12.38 ERA across eight innings over eight relief outings in July.
The 25-year-old left-hander got his major-league career off to a relatively solid start after being called up from Triple-A Durham on June 8, posting a 1-1 record, recording four holds, and generating a 3.65 ERA across the 12.1 innings covering his 12 appearances the remainder of that month. Poche also allowed just an earned run over his first four trips to the mound in July before melting down over the aforementioned three-appearance stretch immediately preceding his outing against the White Sox. Manager Kevin Cash has nevertheless showed patience with his young reliever, and perhaps Saturday's brief (one-third of an inning) but scoreless turn plants the seed for a righting of the ship.