Well, that is how you hope everything is going to work out when Josh Towers starts.
He goes a nice solid 7 innings, and leaves with a 4 run lead and a runner on. Scott Schoeneweis comes on and faces 3 batters, 2 of whom are lefties. Miguel Batista then closes out the game in solid fashion. One starter, two relievers, and the managerial textbook circa 1978 is followed pretty much perfectly. It was not always so over the last 2 weeks.
Let's take a peek at the bullpen chart for the last 2 weeks. I have added new information in the 3rd line of each entry with the relative score (e.g. Jays 6 Mariners 3 is recorded as +3) and the number of baserunners on when the reliever enters the game. So here's the chart:
(entrance inning/batters faced/opp. GPA/score/runners on)
date Batista Speier Frasor Miller Schoen Chulk Walker League
Jl 08 8.0/5 6.0/5 2.2/8 7.1/2 4.0/9
.305 .090 .424 .350 .294
+1/0 +1/0 +3/0 +1/1 +1/0
Jl 09 2.2/12 7.0/4 5.0/11
.500 .175 .473
-2/2 -9/0 -6/0
Jl 10 7.2/2 7.1/4 6.0/6
.725 .753 .075
-2/1 0/0 -1/0
Jl 11
Jl 12 --------------All-Star break-----------------------------------
Jl 13
Downs
Jl 14 8.0/4 7.1/2 7.0/2
.538 .000 .350
-2/0 -2/1 -1/1
Jl 15 8.0/4 5.1/5 6.1/2 7.0/3
.175 .368 .000 .000
+5/0 +5/1 +4/1 +5/0
Jl 16 8.0/4 6.0/5 7.0/3 4.0/7
.113 .243 .000 .170
-1/0 -3/0 -1/0 -3/0
Jl 17 7.2/9 8.2/1 6.2/5 6.0/4
.585 .000 .243 .463
+2/1 -1/3 +3/2 +3/0
Jl 18------------------day off----------------------------
Jl 19 7.1/7 6.0/4 5.1/6 7.0/3
.236 .175 .633 .466
+3/1 +3/0 +6/0 +3/0
Gaudin
Jl 20 8.0/3 7.0/6 6.0/4
.000 .600 .175
+5/0 +8/0 +8/0
Jl 21 7.2/5 7.0/3
.140 .425
+3/1 +4/1
All season long, Manager John Gibbons has been using 5 pitchers during the last 4 innings of games- Chulk, Frasor, Speier, Schoeneweis and Batista. That should be plenty, but during the Tampa Bay series of July 14-17, it was not. What happened?
In the first game of the series, coming off the All-Star break, Gibbons used Chulk and Schoeneweis in the eighth while down a run, and then Batista in the ninth despite being down 2. This was intelligent use of the pen to make sure that they get enough work.
In the second game of the series, the Jays had a 5 run lead in the 6th inning when Gibbons went to his pen. He went through Frasor, Speier, Chulk and Schoeneweis, despite the fact that the game was never close. This was unnecessary. Frasor and Speier needed work, but one or both could have gone longer, or one of the other relievers could have pitched.
In the third game, the Jays trailed throughout the game, but came back to make a game of it. Gibbons rightly brought in Scott Downs early and he pitched effectively. In the 7th inning, the Jays were still down by 3 runs, Gibbons brought in Speier for an inning, followed by Frasor and Batista, although the Jays trailed by a run entering the ninth. Had Chulk and Schoeneweis not been used unwisely in the previous game, this would have been an appropriate game for one, probably Chulk, to have pitched rather than Frasor/Speier.
In the fourth game, the Jays held a 3 run lead after 6 when Gibbons went to the pen, but everyone had seen a lot of work, and no one was particularly effective. Chulk, Schoeneweis and Batista struggled, and Speier (who had pitched the previous 2 days) only came on in desperation after the horse had left the barn in the ninth inning. This was a game where prior bullpen use may have had an impact on performance and ultimately the result.
Jason Frasor struggled over these 2 weeks. It will be particularly important for his workload to be managed over the next 2.
Next report, we'll be looking at the Jays' record in close games (to date, a league worst 14-22), and trying to figure out how important the bullpen, as opposed to the bench and pure dumb luck, have been in this unpleasantness.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050721213158308