Show me a bad bullpen and I’ll show you a bad team. That’s the old baseball adage. We would guess the corollary to that would be, show me an inconsistent bullpen and I’ll show you an inconsistent team.
Which brings us to the Cleveland Guardians.
The other day, Terry Francona said his bullpen had gone through a rough patch over the last week. We hope that manager speak, because the truth is the Guardians’ relievers have been hit or miss for about the last month.
The organization will tell you the bullpen ERA ranks second in all of baseball, and it does, ranking behind only the Yankees with a 3.48 ERA.
Detractors will tell you the relief corps is gassed, but they rank 18th in the majors in innings pitched.
They do have the 4th best batting average against at .223.
There are two issues at work here. The first is because the Guardians are currently leaning on four rookie starters, Francona and pitching coach Carl Willis are leaning on the relievers quite a bit. Having the cover sometimes four or even five innings, not only put a great burden on the crew, but also the more relievers used, the greater chance one of them doesn’t have it that night.
The second thing is Francona, like most managers, likes to have a pecking order with his relievers, so they know when they can expect to get into a game.
We know Emmanuel Clase has the ninth, but he would like to have one or two pitchers who know they will go in the 8th, and so on down the line.
It hasn’t worked that way lately.
Trevor Stephan is the preferred guy to pitch the 8th, but since June 1st, he’s been in 19 games, and allowed runs in six of them. He also has pitched just six innings where he has retired the side in order.
Last Sunday, he came into a game with a three-run lead, and after retiring the first hitter, he walked the next two. That led to a four-run inning, and an eventual loss for Cleveland.
By the way, we have (and most people have) two rules for relief pitchers: Don’t walk hitters and don’t allow the long ball.
Friday night was the kind of thing that makes you wonder how you can figure this game out.
After Gavin Williams had to leave after four innings, Eli Morgan pitched the fifth and faced two batters in the 6th, allowing a single to one of them.
The Guards went to Tim Herrin, a lefty, because Sam Hentges has been scuffling lately, and Herrin over the last month had pitched 8.2 innings, allowing just two runs, striking out 10 and walking just two.
The rookie walked the next three hitters, forcing in a run.
So, Francona went to Nick Sandlin, who got out of the inning. Sandlin over the last month had fired 9.1 frames allowing just one run, and fanning 13, walking just three.
He gave up two homers in the 7th. They were the first he’d allowed since June 17th.
Stephan relieved and you could feel fans wincing at the move.
He put down all five batters he faced.
The point is right now, the Guardians really need the bullpen crew to step up because of the inning restrictions put on the rookie starters, but Francona can’t feel too confident in bringing anyone in, because he just doesn’t know what will happen.
If this is a slump, eventually everyone will return to form and Cleveland’s bullpen will be one of the best in the game. If they continue to fail, then the season could go south in a hurry.
It’s not easy at times to manage a major league baseball team.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 