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From the earliest days of spring, there seemed to be little question that the Pirates' bullpen would do well in protecting leads, given the track records of the key participants.
The primary issue, then, was this: Would that matter?
A bullpen is essentially a supporting cast, and a baseball team that boasts a good bullpen but little else ... well, think of an NHL team with a dominant checking line but no snipers. Or a last-place NBA team winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award.
As closer Octavio Dotel put it the other day, "It makes me feel good knowing that we have a good bullpen. But you know what? Our starting pitchers should know that. We're there for you, but you've got to give us the chance. Give us a lead after six innings."
He caught himself.
Game: Pirates vs. Chicago Cubs, 2:20 p.m., Wrigley Field.
TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Pitching: LHP Brian Burres (2-1, 3.91) vs. LHP Tom Gorzelanny (1-4, 2.83).
Key matchup: Gorzelanny is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA against his former club, but Steve Pearce is 2 for 2.
Of note: Sure, the Pirates sent three batters beyond the minimum to the plate in the past two shutout losses, but Chicago has scored two runs or fewer in six losses of its recent 2-7 skein.
"No, five. Just give us five. We'll take it home."
With the Pirates, obviously, the starting pitching has been an immense disappointment even with a recent trend upward, the hitting has been little better, and the defense has seen a dramatic downgrade.
But the bullpen of Dotel, Brendan Donnelly, Joel Hanrahan, Evan Meek, Jack Taschner, D.J. Carrasco and Javier Lopez has more than lived up to that singular expectation of protecting leads: The team is 10-0 when leading after eight innings, 9-0 when leading after seven, 10-0 when leading after six and, yes, as per Dotel's challenge, 12-0 when leading after five.
The statistics, by comparison, look lousy: The bullpen's 5.32 ERA ranks 14th of the National League's 16 teams, and the average number of walks and hits per inning -- perhaps the best measure of a reliever -- is 1.48, which ranks 13th.
To fully process those figures, though, consider these three essential elements:
1. The Pirates' relievers lead all of Major League Baseball with 128 2/3 innings pitched, a terrible reflection on the starters' inability to go deep. That has forced Dotel, Donnelly and other back-end relievers to work in blowouts, in turn bringing on fatigue.
2. In the 12 games where the Pirates have been leading or were tied after the sixth, the bullpen has an ERA of 3.06. The past five times they have led or were tied after the sixth, the bullpen has allowed a total of one run over 14 2/3 innings.
3. When the Pirates have been trailing after the sixth -- and, more often than not, they were trailing big -- the bullpen's ERA is 6.07. Even there, though, the relievers' record is 3-1, strongly suggesting they were able to salvage whatever was salvageable.
There is no pride to be had in the latter ERA, of course, but 13 of the Pirates' 20 losses have come by six or more runs, and those have come almost entirely because of the starters. And, right or wrong, there is a difference in a reliever's mentality between pitching to hold a lead and simply filling innings.
"We feel like we've got a pretty good group, and we feel like we'll have a chance to show that all summer if we only need to get you three or four innings," Hanrahan said. "But you start getting everybody throwing multiple innings, back-to-back days, and it's going to take a toll, no question."
General manager Neal Huntington put this bullpen together largely from scratch this offseason, following his year-to-year approach with this most unpredictable of dimensions for any roster. All but Hanrahan and Meek were added as free agents, and the newcomers' total cost was $7.16 million, all on one-year terms.
As noted, most had performed well in recent years, but there have been surprises.
Foremost is Meek, the 27-year-old right-hander in his second full season. He has a 0.82 ERA while striking out 22 in the same number of innings. The one occasion Dotel was unavailable to close in Los Angeles, Meek put up a dominant 1-2-3 save.
"For me, this guy is the big key, Dotel said. "I knew what Donnelly was going to do. I knew what these other guys would do. But I had no idea about this one. And what he's doing is special. I'll be honest with you: That's a big surprise. He had one year in the bigs."
"I'm lucky to be part of this bullpen, and I'm just trying to do my part," Meek said.
The other is Taschner, the 32-year-old left-hander who reinvented his delivery in the offseason because he wanted to alter the course of a career he openly described as "mediocre." He began striking out batters in the spring, and he has yet to stop, averaging a whiff per inning.
"Jack's been a huge lift for us, getting the job done like that from the left side," manager John Russell said.
The ability to get strikeouts from so many is part of what has made the bullpen good with leads: The Pirates' 120 strikeouts in relief lead the majors. And, while that can be attributed in part to all the innings, there are other ways to get those outs.
Another facet has been flexibility: Russell opened the season with Dotel as closer, Donnelly as setup man, Carrasco as the long man, and everyone else mostly in the middle. But he since has been able to use pretty much everyone in late innings or even in longer roles.
"And you know what? That's the fun part for the manager," Carrasco said. "If he feels like he can go to the bullpen in the fifth and sixth inning and still be in the game, that speaks volumes. And we take pride in it. We all feel like we can go out there and give what you need to get it to the end."
The manager seems to feel the same way.
"These guys have done the job all year when we've called upon them," Russell said. "What's been nice lately is that we've gotten more out of our starters, so our relievers are a lot fresher. It's exciting to think about what they can do if we keep that up."
First, as has become clear, they will need a little help.
Colin Dunlap's blog on the Pirates is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
