STRESSFUL ON-THE-JOB TRAINING
Group of young pitchers still faces challenges adjusting toworking from bullpen in playoffs
Life for the Astros’ relief pitchers these days is akin to the harshest form of on-the-job training, representing maximum stress in full view with little or no margin for error.
Through four postseason games, including back-to-back victories in the American League Championship Series, Houston’s thin orange line has been flawless with 162⁄ scoreless innings
3 against the Twins and A’s, putting the Astros within one win of the AL Championship Series.
Unlike the A’s, who boasted the best bullpen ERA in baseball during the regular season, the Astros are making do primarily with young players who were trained as starters and are adjusting on the fly to the instant demands of life as a reliever.
Lefthander Blake Taylor, who was credited with the win Monday in Houston’s 10-5 victory, had never worked out of the bullpen and never coped with working back-to-back days, let alone appearing twice in the same doubleheader as he did during the regular season.
“The biggest challenge is recovering,” Taylor said. “Before this year, I had never gone backto-back in my career. It’s about how you handle yourself before the game and after the game.
“I thought it was going to be a lot worse. But hopefully, with the routine I have with the guys in the training room, it has gotten easier.”
While he has said there could be exceptions during the playoffs, manager Dusty Baker has shied away from using pitchers on back-to-back days and has not used a reliever three consecutive days this season.
Part of that, Baker said, is due to the amount of time it takes to determine what each pitcher’s tolerance is for repeated work and his ability prepare quickly for bullpen action after training as a starter.
In Tuesday’s 5-2 win, Baker made an exception by throwing Enoli Paredes for a second consecutive day. Paredes threw two scoreless innings Monday, and the manager indicated before Tuesday’s game that Paredes and Cristian Javier, who pitched the eighth in Game 1, would have the day off.
Paredes, however, worked the eighth, retiring the A’s in order on 10 pitches with a strikeout.
As for Javier, he could be pressed into starter’s duty with the postgame disclosure that Zack Greinke is being examined for arm soreness.
One exception to the three-day rule, Baker said, will be closer Ryan Pressly, who pitched the ninth Monday in a non-save situation.
“He was already loose, and he hadn’t pitched in a couple of days,” Baker said. “The way the A’s come back sometimes in late innings, you didn’t want it to get hairy and then have to call on Pressly or use somebody else.”
Pressly closed again Tuesday, allowing a leadoff single to Marcus Semien before retiring Tommy La Stella on a fly to center and getting Chad Pinder to hit into the third double play turned on the day by the Astros’ defense.
In addition to Javier and Game 2 starter Framber Valdez, the Astros have used Pressly, Paredes, Taylor and lefthander Brooks Raley in the first four playoff games.
With Paredes having pitched twice, that would leave Josh James, Cy Sneed and Andre Scrubb as the most likely candidates for middle-inning work when needed.
“( James) has been throwing on the side, and we’re confident he’s back in good mental and physical shape,” Baker said. “Everybody in this series will get some action. It’s just a matter of which part of the ballgame it is or how deep the starter goes or where we’ll need that particular person’s skills.”
Complicating matters for the bullpen arms is the warm weather that has made Dodger Stadium a launching pad thus far. Taylor, however, said there’s little to be gained by adjusting strategy to weather conditions.
“You have to pitch to your strengths,” he said. “If you don’t, you’re giving your second-best stuff to a guy who can hit the ball anywhere. It’s your second-best stuff against a guy’s best stuff.
“I try to go out and give it my best no matter what. It’s never going to be 100 percent accounted for or predicted what will happen if I throw a pitch at a certain spot. Pitching in Colorado is the same. You have to attack the zone and be cognizant of all these things but at the same time go at them with your best stuff.”
Four games into the postseason, it seems to be working, which is hard even for Taylor to grasp sometimes.
“I’ve had to ask a couple of teammates if this is real, and they say, ‘Yeah, this is real,’ ” he said. “We’re told to go out and attack and throw balls in the zone. We are a good bullpen, and we’re hard to hit.”