MLB Bullpen Red Flags
Bullpen Red Flags: PIT Have Burned 10 Relief Arms in 3 Days
Published
The quietest stat that decides loud games: bullpen usage. We counted every reliever appearance in the last three days of box scores, and the gap between the most-taxed pen and the freshest one is worth knowing about.
Heavy lifting
No pen has worked harder than PIT: ten reliever outings across two games, 5.0 a night. Tired arms give up runs, and they usually give them up in the innings that decide things.
WSH are right there with them at 9 relief outings in 3 games.
TEX (9 outings in 3 games) are not far off that pace either.
The other end of the phone
The freshest arms belong to ATL, only four relief appearances in two games, which is the quiet kind of advantage that shows up in the eighth inning.
MIN are in similar shape, with just 5 relief outings across 2 games.
The spread between the busiest pen and the freshest one is six appearances over the same window, that is the difference between a full late-inning menu and a manager crossing his fingers at the mound.
At a glance
The workload table, straight from the pitching lines:
| Team | Relief outings | Games |
|---|---|---|
| PIT | 10 | 2 |
| WSH | 9 | 3 |
| TEX | 9 | 3 |
| HOU | 9 | 3 |
| MIA | 9 | 2 |
The fine print
The tally counts appearances, not innings: each reliever who entered a captured game adds one to his team's total. Crude on purpose, and applied identically everywhere.
Usage is context, not destiny. But when the late innings arrive, yesterday's workload is very real, and it does not care about the matchup.
The schedule cooperates, too, Pittsburgh Pirates face Los Angeles Dodgers next, so this story gets its next chapter almost immediately.