Phelps' selfless outing another sign of big improvements in Blue Jays bullpen

BOSTON — You don’t see too many managerial mound visits with two out in the ninth inning of a 9-2 ballgame. But that’s what John Schneider did Tuesday, jogging to the mound briskly — out of respect for the personal time of all involved, surely — to check in on Toronto Blue Jays reliever David Phelps.

Phelps had taken over two innings prior for Yusei Kikuchi, who’d imploded under the weight of an eight-run lead — walking three, hitting one, and retiring only two on 28 pitches, only 10 of them strikes. The Blue Jays would have liked for Kikuchi to carry that lopsided game home and leave the rest of Toronto’s relievers in the bullpen. But the Blue Jays would have liked a lot of different things from Kikuchi this year, to be fair. So, enter Phelps with the bases loaded and two out against the Boston Red Sox.

The 35-year-old right-hander quickly got J.D. Martinez to fly out, then breezed through a perfect eighth on 11 pitches. As he got back to the dugout, Phelps told Schneider and Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker he was feeling good — good enough to go back out for another inning and prevent the Blue Jays from needing to call on yet another relief arm in a blowout. Having slid slightly down the Blue Jays bullpen depth chart after the club acquired Anthony Bass at the trade deadline, Phelps understands his role.

“I just thought it would set us up really well for the rest of the series if I could get through that,” Phelps said. “If I need to be a guy that’s going to throw multiples, it’s perfectly fine. I just want to help this team win ballgames. And a lot of times that goes beyond what we’re doing on any given night. If I can help set up the bullpen for a couple games down the road, I’m all for it.”

Baseball being baseball, Phelps’ ninth began with back-to-back singles. Out beyond the right-field fence, Tim Mayza and Trevor Richards started to throw. But then Phelps rallied with a pair of strikeouts, the second coming on his 31st pitch of the ballgame. His previous season-high — remember, Phelps is less than a year removed from a significant lat procedure — was 32. Which is what brought Schneider hustling out.

“I was like, ‘All right, you wanted the inning. You’ve come this far. You’re at the threshold of your pitch count. Do you want it?’” Schneider said. “And he said, ‘I want it. Get out of here.’ So, I said, ‘OK, see ya!’ And I got out of there. I trust him with everything.”

This story unfortunately doesn’t have a tidy ending. Phelps gave up a run-scoring single to Rafael Devers two pitches later, and Richards ended up needing to enter to record the game’s final out. But the selfless job Phelps did with his 33 pitches late on Tuesday wasn’t lost on his teammates, or his coaching staff, or anyone who understands how valuable a well-rested bullpen is at this time of year. And Phelps’ effort bled over into the two games that followed — each one-run, 10th-inning victories — as the Blue Jays swept the Red Sox this week at Fenway Park.

“Phelpsy set the pace for the bullpen the next two games, really,” said Bass, who pitched scoreless innings in Wednesday and Thursday’s victories. “What he did was huge. It keeps us all fresh, keeps the back-end arms sharps so that we can come in and lock down games. What Phelpsy did, picking up Yusei, picking up the bullpen, was just tremendous.”

Think about it. If Phelps doesn’t extend himself on Tuesday and get the six critical outs that he did, Schneider potentially has to turn to Mayza, Bass or even Adam Cimber in a game his team was leading by a touchdown. But because of Phelps, those three were all rested and available to pitch scoreless relief in the two games that followed, a pair of extra-innings contests featuring much higher-leverage situations.

“He's such a valuable piece in our bullpen. He can go multiple innings. He can pitch at any point in the game. I even think he can be a high-leverage arm, in my opinion. He's got great weapons,” Bass said of Phelps. “Everyone in that bullpen, I feel like, is a high-leverage arm. It's just whoever they choose to go with that night.”

We probably haven’t talked about it enough, but Blue Jays relievers have pitched to a 2.73 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and .210 batting average against since the beginning of July — all ranking second in the American League. Their collective 84.7-per-cent strand rate over that span is tops across MLB. What looked like a critical weakness in need of being addressed at the trade deadline has quietly been a key strength for nearly two months.

“I think people underrate this bullpen. I really do. It's been a talking point for two years now — the bullpen, the bullpen, the bullpen. But I think that if you look at us top to bottom, it's a pretty talented, pretty well-put-together group,” Phelps said. “It doesn't really bother us. We're just going to go out there and do our job. We know what we're capable of doing. And we've got guys that can get guys out in a variety of ways.”

That was certainly on display in the final two games this week at Fenway Park. It started Wednesday, when Yimi Garcia and Bass each pitched out of bases-loaded jams in the seventh and eighth innings to preserve a tie and carry the game into extras where the Blue Jays eventually won it.

Garcia had to work extra hard for his outs after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made an error on what could have been an inning-ending groundball, and home plate umpire Laz Diaz robbed him of what should have been a second strike when he was 1-1 on Rob Refsnyder. But Garcia reached deep into his gas tank, following up that miscall with a pair of heaters at 97 and 98 m.p.h. before getting Refsnyder to fly out to centre.

“We’ve seen that all year. I think Yimi’s underlying numbers don’t necessarily paint the picture of how well he’s pitched this year,” Phelps said. “We have so much confidence in him because he’s always going to be aggressive. He’s always going to go right after guys. And when he gets into a little back-and-forth with a hitter, just watching his stuff play up is incredible. Knowing that he’s got it in there when he needs it to find 97, 98 in huge spots just gives you so much confidence.”

Bass, meanwhile, entered the eighth with two runners on after the Red Sox earned a couple of soft-contact singles off Mayza. He knew his first batter, Kike Hernandez, is an aggressive hitter who looks for fastballs middle-in. So, as soon as Bass reached the mound from the bullpen, he told his catcher, Alejandro Kirk, the first pitch he was going to throw was a slider down-and-away. And then he didn’t stop throwing sliders down-and-away until Hernandez struck out.

“Based on his swings, even his stance at the plate, you could tell he was looking to pull a fastball. One out, runners on second and third — he wants to be a hero, he’s trying to hit it over the monster,” Bass said. “And that’s when my slider comes into play. Warming up in the bullpen, I had a good feel of it. So, it was all about execution in that moment. Staying within yourself. I knew as long as I execute this slider down-and-away, good things are going to happen.”

Bass’ slider was so effective against Hernandez that he was prepared to go right back to it as Bobby Dalbec stepped to the plate with the bases loaded after Schneider made a Sophie’s choice trade-off to intentionally walk the bases loaded in order to get his pitcher into a better matchup. But Kirk called for a heater down-and-away, using the same tunnel Bass attacked Hernandez with sliders in, only with a harder pitch. And then he doubled up on it

“I loved Kirk’s call,” Bass said. “Dalbec had just seen me throw four straight sliders to Kike. He’s a smart hitter. He’s probably looking for that pitch. So, to freeze him with a good fastball down-and-away strike one was key. And I loved Kirk’s double-up call, too. Obviously, he was still looking for that spin.

“Two quick strikes, and I knew it was time to go to my best weapon. Make it look like a strike, make it look like a fastball, and let it just bottom out. Which is what it did.”

Strike three. Job done. Not an unfamiliar feeling for Bass, who’s been with the Blue Jays for 19 games and appeared in 11 of them. Over that span, Bass has retired 30 of the 38 batters he’s faced, striking out 10 with a 58-per-cent groundball rate. The Blue Jays acquired him when he was a top-10 MLB reliever in both ERA and FIP. And in the time since, he’s been even better.

“It’s funny, when I got traded over here, my agent told me that Mark [Shapiro] and Ross [Atkins] told him that I was going to be used a lot. So, I was looking forward to the challenge,” Bass said. “But I like being involved. I knew I was going to be in big parts of games. That’s a spot I love to be in. I want to put up zeroes in crucial situations to get that momentum back to our side. That part of the game is a lot of fun. And I’m glad I’m able to do that.”

And he did it again on Thursday, working around some trouble in the seventh inning of another tied game to get his team through to the eighth. This time, Bass actually got to face Cordero. And after getting ahead with a fastball, Bass was stubborn with his slider, throwing Cordero four straight until he finally got the Red Sox outfielder to chase one beneath the zone.

From there, Cimber and Mayza did their jobs. And Jordan Romano did his, completing two innings for only the second time this season and tying his season-high pitch count at 28.

It wasn’t easy. Romano had to MacGruber his way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam after J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts opened the ninth with loud hits. But he worked backwards to strike out Cordero before attacking Hernandez with sliders and getting a groundball to the perfect guy at third base — Matt Chapman, who calmly handled it and turned an inning-ending, 5-3 double play.

Back out for the 10th, Romano sustained his velocity deep into his outing, touching 99 twice as he blew away the Red Sox in order. That capped a series in which Toronto’s bullpen allowed two earned runs over 12 innings pitched, striking out 17 while walking eight. And if you take Kikuchi’s blow-up out of the equation, it’s one earned run over 11.1 innings with 16 strikeouts and only five walks.

“I think it's important to let our fanbase know that this bullpen should be taken seriously. We've got arms down there that can compete with the best of them, the best bullpens in the game,” Bass said. “It's been fun to watch everyone and the way they work. No one has any egos about when they come into the game. You've got one job and that's to put up a zero on the board. In any way possible. Get us back in the dugout.”

Which brings us back to Tuesday, when it all began. Phelps’ two-inning, 33-pitch effort picking up Kikuchi may not have seemed like a big deal at the time. But it set Toronto’s bullpen up for the much higher leverage work it performed in the days to come. In a quietly effective bullpen that hasn’t gotten the credit it deserves of late, Phelps understands his role. He knows what his team needs him to do. And whenever his name’s called, he’ll be ready to do it.

“I've been here long enough. I know what our bullpen can do when everyone's fresh and healthy. We can do some pretty incredible things. And if I can, in a situation like that, help guys stay fresh, I'm all for it,” Phelps said. “We’ve got a good group. We’re all really confident right now. Underrated, overrated, whatever you want to call our bullpen — I think we're going to surprise some people down the stretch.”