Marlins closer Kyle Barraclough was the National League’s best reliever in June Ty Montgomery Jersey Elite , which makes him a trade target in July.

The hard-throwing right-hander was chosen NL reliever of the month, an honor that will assume a prominent place in his collection, partly because there’s little competition.

”I don’t really have many items on my trophy shelf,” Barraclough said Monday. ”A high school championship, maybe. I try not to pay much attention to individual awards. I like to win games.”

As the trade deadline approaches, Barraclough’s recent dominance makes him attractive to contending teams looking to shore up their bullpens. And with the Marlins in a rebuilding mode, they’ll listen to offers.

Barraclough allowed one hit in 36 at-bats in June Mike Gesicki Jersey , tossed 12 scoreless innings and converted all seven save chances while the Marlins went 14-14, their best month this season.

Barraclough began this week on a streak of 20 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings dating to May 8. He had a .085 batting average against for the season, lowest in the majors. His ERA of 0.99 was fourth-lowest.

He moved into the closer’s role a month ago for the first time in his career, and the change brought stability to a bullpen that had been one of Miami’s weakest areas.

”Kyle has been great,” manager Don Mattingly said. ”Getting that reliability back there has been really good for us.”

Barraclough has a fastball that clocks in the upper 90s, and in 2016-17 he averaged 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings. His whiffs are down slightly this year, but walks also are down thanks to improved command.

”Attacking the strike zone has been the big thing the last two months or so Jimmy Garoppolo Jersey Youth ,” he said. ”Getting ahead of the hitters has put everyone on the defensive and allowed me to use my off-speed stuff.”

The result is more efficient outings. Barraclough’s pitch counts for his June saves, all requiring three outs, were 13, 11, 14, 14, 11 Dak Prescott Jersey Elite , 10, 10.

”You don’t need to throw 25 pitches and strike everyone out,” he said. ”A groundout is just as good as a strikeout.”

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>Bob Costas isn’t backing down on his belief that the NFL faces a day of reckoning on the issue of brain injuries, and talks about the one event he wishes he had been able to broadcast on the “AP Sports Weekly” podcast .The NBC and MLB announcer joins co-hosts Jim Litke and Tim Dahlberg to talk about a variety of issues, including the Olympics and how the growing use of analytics has made baseball into a different game than he watched growing up.Litke and Dahlberg discuss the week’s top events, including the Masters, which Costas says is the one sporting event he wishes he could have broadcast. And they debate the merits of Waffle House Mike McGlinchey Jersey Youth , where the fiesta omelet was a big hit as the co-hosts made their way to Augusta for the Masters.Costas once described the location of Augusta National Golf club “like putting the Eiffel Tower in the middle of a trailer park,” and says he has played the course but will leave the broadcast booth to others. Copyright ©2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed..