PHOENIX — Nine days past his 26th birthday, Craig Kimbrel is the Atlanta Braves' career leader in saves.
That number figures to get a lot bigger before he's through.
Kimbrel got the final four outs in the Braves' 5-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night, earning his 16th save of the season (in 18 tries) and 155th of his career. That's one more than John Smoltz.
Those 155 saves have come in 172 opportunities.
"I've been a part of a lot of good teams and had a lot of opportunities," Kimbrel said. "Having the chance my first full season to be a closer, that doesn't happen very often and that's why we're sitting here talking today, because I had that opportunity a lot of guys don't have.
"I feel blessed and grateful for it."
Kimbrel had one save in 2010, 46 in 2011, 42 in 2012 and 50 in 2013.
"I've played with him for four years and some change and he's already the franchise leader in saves," teammate Jason Heyward said. "That's pretty cool."
Kimbrel entered the game with two outs and a runner at first in the eighth inning and got his former Atlanta teammate Martin Prado looking to end the inning.
With a three-run lead in the ninth, Kimbrel got Aaron Hill and David Peralta to fly out, then Tuffy Gosewich popped out to end it.
It was just his third career four-out save.
"He hadn't pitched since last Saturday," manager Fredi Gonzalez said, "so we were able to do that."