Mitchell keeping faith with back end of bullpen

TRENTON » The Thunder went 3-4 during their seven-road game, but it could have been much better had they not blown two save opportunities.

Cody Carroll coughed up a 3-1 lead in the eighth when he allowed a three-run shot against Hartford on Thursday and Cale Coshow couldn’t hold a one-run advantage Sunday night in Altoona.

Coshow is 15-for-19 in SVO, while Carroll is 1-for-5 since joining the closerby-committee rotation manager Bobby Mitchell has been using.

That, however, has changed since Colten Brewer (9-for-11 in SVO) was promoted to Triple-A. Mitchell said Carroll is still likely to be a two-inning pitcher, but Coshow will get the ball in a one-inning save situation.

“We’ve fallen off lately, which happens, and we’ve talked about having a short memory for those late relievers,” Mitchell said. “You got to go on to the next night and expect to succeed.”

Mitchell said it’s unlikely that Anyelo Gomez will get any reps at closer, although the 24-year-old righty has pitched to a 1.73 ERA in 12 appearances.

“I think he’ll stay middle to set-up guy, so he can go multiple innings,” Mitchell said. “He might be a guy who comes in late for two innings and takes over Brewer’s spot, but we haven’t discussed it yet. He’s been real effective. It would be a good role to see if he can handle it, but he’s also done well in the role he’s in.” the end of the season for Domingo Acevedo. The big right-hander has already amassed 128 innings, 35 more than he threw all of last year.

“I don’t know the cap (on innings), but there’s definitely a possibility he gets shut down,” Mitchell said.

Acevedo is on a five-inning limit for the remainder of his starts.