ARLINGTON, Texas — Bullpen days are a grind. To begin with, they put an enormous strain on the relievers tasked with covering the game, complicating their usage both before and after. In turn, that affects the workloads of those not filling in that day, occasionally forcing their use in roles or situations outside their comfort zone. Then, if a team also happens to be running a four-man rotation like the Toronto Blue Jays are at the moment, there is the additional burden on the other starters to help ease the stress on everyone else.
The impact, then, is far-reaching.
“It's in the back of your mind,” manager John Schneider said of the collective toll on his pitching staff. “But I think right now you play the hand you're dealt a little bit and when that time comes, adjust a bit when it comes to workload.”
Credit then to Trevor Richards, who allowed three runs in three innings, and Bowden Francis, who delivered 2.2 runless frames, for minimizing the fallout from a second bullpen game in a week on the Blue Jays in a 4-2 loss to the Texas Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
Yimi Garcia, who served up a meatball changeup that Corey Seager launched 418 feet, and Adam Cimber closed out the four-arm effort that gave the Blue Jays an opportunity to win a second straight game and left the staff in good shape heading into Sunday’s series finale.
“This was a little different. I had some time off there, it was a week since I threw last, so just trying to stay fresh,” Richards said of opening a second straight bullpen day after going three shutout innings against the Minnesota Twins last time out. “I was available in the 'pen (in between), so was locked in for those games and knew I was getting the start here.
"I wanted to try to eat as many innings as I could and wish I could have gone a couple more for the bullpen out there. But I did what I could.”
Richards did plenty and thanks to a pair of upcoming off-days, the Blue Jays can get by without a fifth starter until July 1, when they host the Boston Red Sox. Another off-day July 3 means they’d only need to cover one more game with a fifth starter ahead of the July 10-13 all-star break, allowing them to give Alek Manoah all kinds of runway as he looks to regain his form in the minors.
At the same time, Manoah is on track to be back as soon as July 1, as well, with time for another sim game Tuesday followed by a rehab game with a minor-league affiliate ahead of a possible return. It all depends on how quickly Manoah progresses, with Schneider saying Friday that, “everything that we were talking about in terms of delivery and stuff (for Manoah) was good, so making some good strides in the right direction.”
While getting Manoah right is the priority, a return sooner rather than later would be ideal since Kevin Gausman has already surrendered the benefits of one extra day of rest by starting Friday instead of on-turn Saturday, and everyone will give up a couple more between now and July 1.
For now, that’s fine, but maybe that catches up with them down the road and perhaps they need to consider inserting a sixth starter — Hyun Jin Ryu if he’s healthy enough later this summer — down the road as a counterbalance.
“Something like that could come into play later down the road in a couple months,” said Schneider. “It's the ebb and flow of it where you don't want them to be overworked, you don't want them to be too rested and lose sharpness. We have a pretty good group of people attacking all of that info. But it's something we'll probably look at later down the road.”
An offensive explosion would certainly make life easier, but the Blue Jays continue grinding on that front, eking out only a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. RBI single in the first and a Daulton Varsho solo shot in the fourth.
Varsho also added a single in the first as the Blue Jays went 2-for-4 with runners in scoring position, but they got only one run as Guerrero was thrown out at home trying to score to end the opening frame.
The Blue Jays had 14 hard-hit balls in the game, compared to eight for the Rangers, but continue to be caught between good process and frustrating results. Underlining the gap is that coming into this series, Texas had 646 hits this season, only three more than Toronto, but had scored 98 more runs at 419-321.
“It shows just how close we are to actually making those runs happen. We're right there,” said Varsho. “It's about getting that hit in that big moment and not trying to do too much, with a little bit of luck added on to it. If we continue doing what we're doing, we're going to be just fine.”
Trusting in that can be a challenge and the Blue Jays aren’t just passively waiting for everything to come around. In the first inning for instance, after a George Springer leadoff single, they played hit and run and Whit Merrifield sent a grounder directly to Marcus Semien, who was standing on the bag to cover the steal, leading to a double play.
“It's just kind of where we're at right now,” lamented Schneider. “You have to be patient and understand that the numbers will kind of neutralize at some point. … These guys, they've all hit over the course of their careers. We're confident that it'll turn and until then, you try to force some things, try to make some things happen based on what you're seeing, but confident that it'll turn.”
The pitching staff, meanwhile, simply needs a fifth starter.
None of the depth options the Blue Jays believed were in place before the season have panned out — Mitch White still hasn’t hit his stride after arriving to camp hurt, top prospect Ricky Tiedemann is injured, Zach Thompson and Drew Hutchison are no longer with the organization, Casey Lawrence has struggled — forcing them into bullpen games.
Richards, who has pitched in a number of different roles this season, and Francis have risen to the occasion, but they’re temporary patches, not longer-term solutions.
“To me, it's about winning ballgames and whatever the team needs,” Richards said of jumping between roles. “If we need a starter, give me the ball. If not, I'll be in the bullpen ready to go whenever I can.”
The Blue Jays and their pitching staff will collectively be much better off if he’s needed for less of the former, and more of the latter.
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