"The question — Are you now the best closer in baseball? — elicited a quick disavowing head shake from Joakim Soria. The smile fell away, and he summoned that no-nonsense Mexicutioner stare that the camera often catches.

"Oh, no," he said. "No … no."

Not the best? OK. How about most reliable? Let crunch some numbers.

Start with this season: Soria has the best saves percentage (95.5) for any reliever with at least 20 opportunities.

Now go back to when he became the Royals' full-time closer as a rookie following a July 31, 2007 trade that sent Octavio Dotel to Atlanta for pitcher Kyle Davies.

Soria has 121 saves in 130 opportunities since then for a success rate of 93.1 percent that ranks first among all closers. His save Monday in a 10-8 victory over Minnesota moved him past role model Mariano Rivera of the Yankees.

Rivera is 129 for 139 in that span for 92.8 percent. He is also experiencing a rare slip this month in blowing three of his last six chances.

Other big-name closers are struggling, too.

Boston's Jonathan Papelbon has eight blown saves and a 4.02 ERA. Detroit's José Valverde, who was in line to close the All-Star Game (over Soria) in Rivera's absence, has a 6.65 ERA in 20 outings since the break.

"Those guys have been pitching for a while," Soria said. "They're not perfect. They're human beings. Sometimes, things don't go well. Some years, you don't feel that good. I think that's what has happened to those guys.

"They still put up good numbers. Even when they have a year when it's a struggle, they figure out how to put numbers together. That's a big deal. That's what matters. This is the major leagues, and it's really hard to be consistent."

That's coming from a master of consistency. Soria has a 1.96 ERA in 236 career appearances, is currently on a club-record scoreless run of 22 2/3 innings and a club-record streak of 35 consecutive successful save conversions.

"If you came to me right now and said I could have any closer in baseball," manager Ned Yost said, "for me, it's got to be Soria."

Yost might be biased. The numbers aren't."