SAN FRANCISCO — As the Giants saw their lead in the NL West reduced to 1 1/2 games Wednesday night, it remains to be seen whether their bullpen can hold up with the Los Angeles Dodgers in pursuit.
Giants relief pitchers played a major role in a nine-game win streak that preceded a 9-6 loss to the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park. It’s also true the bullpen helped bring that streak to an end as San Francisco played its fifth “bullpen” game in 11 days because of a depleted starting staff.
While the Dodgers used a conventional starter in Julio Urias in a 5-3 win over Arizona, the Giants got off to a rough start with Dominic Leone in his role as an “opener” for the fourth time since Sept. 4. Leone, who had been very good in his previous efforts, got only one out, threw 21 pitches, and the Giants were down 2-0 at the top of the first inning. Considering the Giants are 68-14 when they score first, that was significant.
It’s easy enough to write it off as a bad day for the bullpen. If you’re counting Leone as a reliever, the “bullpen” game allowed 16 hits and nine runs, six of them earned to the Padres. The Giants used seven pitchers. Leone, Jarlin Garcia, Jose Quintana and Jose Alvarez all gave up runs.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler credited the Padres, but conceded “bullpen” games aren’t an ideal scenario.
“I’m not and we’re not going to complain about things that are done out of necessity,” Kapler said. “If we had five healthy starters we would be running out a five-man rotation. Right now, we’re pretty heavily dependent on our bullpen. There is an end in sight to having two bullpen games a week.”
Left-hander Alex Wood (COVID-19) had an encouraging live session before Wednesday’s game. Johnny Cueto (right flexor strain) also began throwing on flat ground. Wood appears much closer to returning against Cueto, but it looks as if the occasional bullpen game could be a possibility both in the regular season and postseason, whatever that entails.
While Kapler has a point when he said “I think it’s challenging for hitters to face a different pitcher every time they come to the plate,” it’s also true that if one or more of those relievers doesn’t deliver a stellar effort, things get infinitely more difficult.
Not that the Giants, based on what they’ve seen from their relievers en route to a 95-51 record, are overly concerned.
“They’ve been awesome this whole time,” first baseman Brandon Belt said. “They’ve kept us in a lot of ballgames. I think it’s pretty tough to ask them to go out there like this multiple times a week, but they’ve done it, haven’t said a word and got the job done for the most part. Tonight we couldn’t pick ’em up. Came up a little short.”
Wood said following his pregame throwing session he could envision a bullpen game in the postseason.
“There are some real possibilities, some real scenarios in the postseason where that could be a viable, viable option,” Wood said. “To have those guys have gotten used to it for the last couple of weeks doing those bullpen games and how well they’ve done, I think it’s just another tool in the toolbox for the postseason.”
Kapler and pitching coach Andrew Bailey will designate a starter for a bullpen game — it’s been Leone last four times — and then give a rough order of who is to follow rather than carving the plan in stone. In their five bullpen games, during which they’ve gone 3-2, they’ve used eight, nine, eight, six and seven pitchers. And although pitchers generally know the order, they’re never sure based on the game circumstances when they’ll be called upon.
“We specifically go into these games trying to avoid having it scripted out,” Kapler said.
Why?
“The game is a living thing. It’s always moving,” Bailey said. “But the flexibility our guys have shown is great.”
Leone lasted only 1/3 of an inning Wednesday night, giving up a double to Jurickson Profar and an infield single to Fernando Tatis. With the left-handed Eric Hosmer up next, Kapler went to the left-handed Jarlin Garcia. He retired Profar but gave up a two-run double to Adam Frazier, with both runs charged to Leone.
Kapler said he thought Profar’s opening double set the tone for the game.
Bullpen games, of which there have been five since the Giants took two of three from the Dodgers Sept. 3-5, have highlighted the versatility of a unit that has been all hands on deck from the outset and a major reason the San Francisco franchise record of 103 wins (1962 and 1993) is in serious jeopardy with 16 games remaining.
The bullpen played a major role in World Series championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014, thanks in part to the “Core Four” of Sergio Romo, Santiago Casilla, Javier Lopez and Jeremy Affeldt, with Brian Wilson having his one big year in 2010.
In 2021, there has been a lot of Jake McGee (31 saves) and Tyler Rogers (12 saves) on the back end, but with a host of others, some of whom have bounced between Triple-A Sacramento and the Giants.
Giants relievers have a 39-20 record, are first in saves with 51 and fifth in appearances with 526. But while the league-wide trend toward relievers leans toward maximum velocity, the Giants, with Camilo Doval the lone exception, have traded a few miles per hour for tempo and precision. Their average of 2.74 walks per nine innings is the best rate in the majors, while their strikeout rate (7.73) is 28th.
McGee, for example, throws mostly fastballs with an occasional slider mixed in, but his success is not so much the velocity as throwing the ball just high enough where hitters can’t square him up. Rogers gets out both right-handers and left-handers with a 72-mile-an-hour Frisbee slider that leaves hitters flailing.
“I’ve seen a lot of bullpens where every arm that comes at you is 97, 98,” Kapler said. “That’s not who we are.”
The occasional bullpen games have necessitated relievers assuming unconventional roles and embracing those roles rather than complaining about them.
Bailey said he believes relievers’ roles have changed to the point where young pitchers understand things may be asked of them that weren’t expected of their predecessors from even five years ago.
“You see kids coming from college and high school with a knowledge base of the game in a different light,” Bailey said. “I think over time, guys are more accepting of it and understanding and it definitely helps us win ballgames.”
Will it be enough to hold off the Dodgers and avoid a one-game elimination scenario in a wild card? We begin to learn the answer Thursday when the Giants close out their series against the Padres, with the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves coming to town this weekend.
