A Little Bullpen Work Never Hurt
In Sunday’s 18-inning marathon between the Reds and Padres, pitchers Aaron Harang and Edinson Volquez made uncharacteristic appearances out of the bullpen. After ruffling through eight different pitchers in twelve innings, the Reds found themselves out of traditional relief resources. Harang came in for the 13th-16th innings while Volquez pitched the 17th before surrendering a walkoff home run with two outs in the 18th. Though odd that they pitched out of the bullpen, period, the actual ingredients comprising these appearances are even more interesting.
Harang had pitched just three days earlier, against the same Padres, experiencing his worst start of the season. In it he went just 5.1 innings, giving up 10 hits and 5 runs; he also walked two and struck out seven. This start had been one of just two stains on an otherwise very solid albeit unlucky season for the Reds ace. In his career, Harang had never pitched on just two days rest. Based on his performance against the Padres, perhaps he should more often!
Okay, I’m kidding, and would never base a statement like that off of just one game but Harang might have pitched his best on Sunday. In four innings of relief work he gave up just two hits and struck out nine batters. His nine strikeouts happened to be his season high. Harang was clearly aided by imposing shadows, causing some feeble and futile swings from Padres hitters; for a guy as unlucky as he throughout this season this goes down as positive karma in my book.
Volquez, on the other hand, had pitched two days prior, striking out 12 Padres hitters in six innings of two-hit, one-run work. Volquez has been so good this season that his ERA actually went up after that outing. On Sunday, though, Volquez went 1.2 innings, walking one and striking out two. He also gave up one hit which proved to be the game-winner. With two on and two out in the bottom of the 18th, he gave up a walkoff three-run home run to Adrian Gonzalez.
Despite garnering the loss, the three runs were all unearned because, a few plays earlier, Joey Votto botched a routine play to first base. Volquez pitched six tremendous innings on Friday, giving up one run, and yet he raised his ERA; on Sunday he gave up a three-run home run and his ERA went down.
Based on the WPA results, Volquez’s -.216 deemed this his worst appearance of the season while Harang’s +.568 was far and away his best.
28
I was thinking about the Padres 2 very long games this year (18 innings and 22 innings) and was wishing the Cardinals were involved in a few games like that. I would love to see Larussa burn through his bullpen in 15 innings. Everyone would slowing start glancing furtively at Rick Ankiel during Cardinal at-bats, wondering whether he would volunteer to pitch or whether they would really have to try Glaus on the mound.
I can’t imagine anyone would actually have the courage to ask Ankiel to pitch in that situation, so it would be curious to see his response if Larussa asked whether any position players felt comfortable throwing an inning after the bullpen (and maybe a few starters) had already pitched.
FWIW, Harang was relying almost exclusively on his fastball, as he didn’t want to overtax himself. For a guy with good command and a good heater, perhaps more pitchers should utilize the strategy as a way to get more innings out of themselves. It allowed Harang to worry more about executing good pitches with a reliable pitch than trickery and/or deception with less stellar offerings.
I’ve though of that situation as well mymrbig. I wonder how many other former pitchers (actually pitched in professional ball) there are playing the field who could be called upon to take the mound in a pinch.
All I know is that it was a travesty he didn’t get a single 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place Cy Young Award vote in 2006. Sorry to stray off topic but it STILL irks me and I’m not even a Reds fan.
I think the shadows definitely helped him stick with the heater. Why tax yourself with breaking balls if a) the heater is working and b) the batters can’t even see the ball?