ST. PETERSBURG -- With the Rays leading the Twins by seven runs Saturday afternoon, left-hander Dietrich Enns made his way to the mound to begin the seventh inning. He allowed four hits and struck out three, cruising through three scoreless innings on 45 pitches. He also made history.
By pitching the final three innings, Enns became the 13th Rays pitcher to record a save this season. That broke a tie with last year’s Tampa Bay club and the 1973 Rangers for the single-season record. Saves became an official statistic in 1969, but having 13 different pitchers record a save in one season would still be the record even when applied retroactively.
If nothing else, that record is a reflection of what makes the Rays’ bullpen special: depth, flexibility and pure effectiveness.
The Rays’ relief depth is evident in the number of pitchers with at least one save: Diego Castillo (14), Andrew Kittredge (six), Pete Fairbanks (five), J.P. Feyereisen (three), Jeffrey Springs (two) and a bunch more with one each: Josh Fleming, Collin McHugh, Matt Wisler, Chris Mazza, Ryan Sherriff, Trevor Richards, Evan Phillips and Enns. Tampa Bay has used 34 pitchers overall this season, at one point running out a bullpen that barely resembled the injury-depleted group it broke camp with.
Since the All-Star break, the Rays have had 10 pitchers combine to record 14 saves. And they may not stop at 13, either.
Right-hander JT Chargois has yet to record a save. Neither has the recently called up David Robertson, who has plenty of late-inning experience in his career. Rehabbing right-hander Nick Anderson, the high-leverage reliever who led the 2020 Rays with six saves during the regular season, could finally rejoin their bullpen in the coming weeks.
“You've got to give credit to so many people,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “The pitchers are out there doing it, but for [general manager Erik Neander] and his staff, our player development group and certainly [senior director of pro personnel and pro scouting] Kevin Ibach, the guys that go around and find these guys and find special things about them that can really contribute to our team over the course of a six-month season, it's really impressive what they do.
“And then when they get the opportunities, it seems like they just find ways to make the most of it.”
That’s a testament to the flexibility and versatility of Tampa Bay’s pitchers. For so long, conventional wisdom suggested that the best bullpens came with order: set relievers in set positions. The Rays have bucked that trend, deploying relievers based on matchups and leverage rather than assigning them specific roles. They entered Sunday’s series finale against the Twins at Tropicana Field leading the Majors with a 3.07 bullpen ERA.
Their saves leader, Castillo, was traded to the Mariners in July. Kittredge has pitched in every inning from the first to the 11th this season. McHugh has pitched in every inning but the third, his appearances ranging in length from one out to three innings. Fleming leads the team with 10 wins and ranks third in innings pitched, but he picked up a three-inning save on Aug. 22 when he was bumped to the bullpen.
And there’s a benefit to that flexibility beyond winning games in the regular season, McHugh suggested.
“If you've never been in a save situation and you get put in one and you get the save, you're now a closer. For all intents and purposes, you are,” the right-hander said recently. “And when you get put in that situation again, inevitably, that base of experience is just what you're looking for.
“Everybody around the league, I think, has a good deal of respect for the talent that we have, obviously in the bullpen and rotation and kind of up and down this roster. But the thing that kind of sets us apart is that now, at the end of the season, we have 10, 12, 13 guys with saves, and we go into the postseason with that many guys who know what it's like to pitch in a big situation and have come through when the game's on the line for the team.”
Five of the Rays’ saves have been three-inning outings, like Enns’ appearance on Saturday -- not the traditional high-leverage type of save, but nonetheless critical in a season where every club is monitoring pitchers’ workloads.
“They are huge. I know the leverage of the game in those situations is different than the three-out save when there's one run to work with, no margin of error,” Cash said. “But to be able to give, whether it's Collin, Kitt, Pete, Robbie, any of those guys a blow from that day and not have to pitch, it just helps a lot.”
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September 04, 2021 at 02:00PM
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