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 of 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 leaves the Blue Jays in good shape heading into Sunday’s series finale.
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 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 — perhaps Hyun Jin Ryu if he’s healthy — 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 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 got only one run as Guerrero was thrown out at home to end the first.
