Relievers have been ready when called upon
When talking to relief pitchers about how they fit in their club’s bullpen structure, they inevitably repeat the same refrain.
“I just want to know what my role is.” Bullpens usually are constructed that way, with the closer given the ninth inning (with leads), the other high-leverage relievers placed in front of him, and everybody else slated for action during the middle innings or with victories out of reach.
That has not been the case for the highly successful Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen, however. After closer Corey Knebel was lost for four to six weeks with a hamstring strain during the team’s first home stand, manager Craig Counsell gave Jacob Barnes successive shots at protecting ninth-inning leads.
When those leads slipped away, one primarily due to atrocious infield defense, Counsell changed his modus operandi. He began mixing and matching his relievers, depending on situations in the game and which hitters were due up, not worrying as much about who would get the ball at the end.
One day you might get the ball in the sixth inning, then the ninth inning next time out. That happened at the start of the week to Jeremy Jeffress, who extricated the Brewers from a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning Sunday against Miami at home, then closed a 5-2 victory in Kansas City on Tuesday night by recording the last two outs.
It has been an unorthodox method of running a bullpen but so remarkably successful that Counsell sees no reason to fix what ain’t broke.
“We’re trying to get 27 outs, and setting up the best matchups to get those outs,” Counsell explained. “I know what hitters I want them to face but it doesn’t matter which inning it is.
“We’re going game by game. We’re mixing and matching, just getting outs. It doesn’t matter which inning you pitch. It matters that you get outs, and that we get 27 outs. The situations are different every day; the games are different every day; the scores are different every day. We’re playing different teams every three days. That influences it all. I don’t think we have to stick to a set plan.
“These guys have really embraced that, and it’s been good. Just get the hitters out you’re asked to get out, and hand the ball over to the next guy. They’ve done an outstanding job.”
Entering the Friday afternoon game against the Cubs in Chicago, the relief corps had gone 29 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run. Over that stretch, they allowed only 13 hits and six walks while logging 35 strikeouts.
At that point, five relievers had earned run averages of 1.50 or lower, led by Jeffress’ 0.68 mark. Rookie Taylor Williams was a bit higher at 2.45 and Oliver Drake was at 5.91 only because he allowed six runs in one frame against Cincinnati on April 16. Otherwise, he would have had a 0.93 ERA.
Not bad for a bunch of guys who don’t know their roles, right? Instead of imploding after the loss of Knebel, the relievers embraced the new way of bullpen usage, not knowing on any given night what inning their number might be called.
“I’m not sure it’s a mystery as much as guys just doing their jobs,” said lefthander Dan Jennings, a nice addition to the bullpen who was acquired with the season one day old. “Sometimes, guys want to know their roles, but I think it benefits us not to have specific roles. Just take the ball whenever they give it to you.
“It keeps you on your toes, where you’re always ready to pitch, in any situation. When the phone rings, we really don’t know who’s going in. I think that’s a good thing because that means everybody is doing their job. That makes it easy on ‘Couns’ because he can pick and choose who he wants in whatever situations. We all stay ready.
“The biggest thing is we have a group of guys where we’ve never had specific roles (for any length of time). We’ve all pitched in different situations. So, we’re used to doing that. We’re pitching a lot, too, and I think that’s a good thing. When you get a lot of off-days in a row, you lose feel a little bit. I like to get out there, and I know the other guys do, too.”
That steady workload cannot be understated. It’s not as if the Brewers’ bullpen has been lightly used. Entering Friday, the relievers had worked 991⁄3 innings, the fourth-highest total in the majors. Yet, they had compiled a 2.45 ERA, third-best among the 30 clubs.
Of the all-for-one attitude in his bullpen, Counsell said, “I think (bullpen coach) Lee (Tunnell) has done a good job of fostering that. We’ve tried to foster that, to take the ball when asked and get as many outs as you can, and pass the baton to the next guy. That’s exactly what they’ve done.
“They’ve had that great mentality and it’s allowed them to get the most out of themselves, and pick each other up, and enjoy it. They enjoy forming that unit to cover the last nine to 12 outs of the game, or whatever.
“It’s able to work smoothly when those guys pitch so well. They’ve just pitched well, executed their pitches very well. They have been efficient with their pitches. So, it’s a tip of the cap to how they’ve pitched. That’s what has made it run smoothly.”
Beyond using different pitchers at different points of a game, Counsell has not been afraid to go a bit old-school in closing out victories. In a nod to the days of Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage, he has called on strikeout sensation Josh Hader three times to cover the final two innings for a save, and Barnes once to do so.
“We understand the situation we’re in,” Barnes said. “Obviously, when you lose your closer, the slack is going to have to be picked up by the group, not necessarily one person. We understand they’re trying to put everyone in situations they fit best. We expect that now.
“It’s not bad to have a set role but if you also know you could be in at any time, that’s good as well. This isn’t about any one relief pitcher. We knew that right away (when Knebel was injured). We knew there would no longer be roles. If you’re called in for the fifth or sixth inning, your job is to get outs. Same thing if it’s the ninth inning.
“It’s been fun to see. Hopefully, we can keep doing it. That’s a sign of a great bullpen. We have a lot of depth out there. We get used often but not overused. They are able to space out when we pitch. It has been good.”
In case you haven’t noticed, baseball has become a bullpen game. Starters are pulled earlier than ever because analytics show they often fare poorly the third time through the batting order. So, how a manager runs his bullpen has become more important, often the difference between winning and losing.
In that regard, Counsell has stopped using the terms “starters” and “relievers.” Instead, he merely calls members of his pitching staff “out-getters.” And he expects those who don’t, ahem, “start” the game to be ready to get outs at any juncture.
When it was suggested to Counsell that bullpens seem to decide every game, he laughed and replied, “That may just be us.”
“We’ve played a bunch of close games, and we did last year, too,” Counsell added. “The bullpen is a big part of winning and losing. The starting pitcher is generally covering more outs but (relievers), late in the game, with a one-run lead, it becomes more important.
“They’ve just done such a nice job of picking each other up. They are coming in with runners on base and putting up zeroes. Not just putting up zeroes on their line but putting up zeroes for the guy before them. That’s been really impressive.”
All for one and one for all. Who needs specific roles? Not the Brewers.