NEW YORK – If any member of the Cubs’ bullpen needed a day or two to recover, they can thank Mother Nature, who washed away back-to-back games in two different time zones Sunday and Monday.
But most likely, the Cubs’ relievers who were scorched in Saturday’s implosion were ready to be called on again the next day.
“That’s just your job as a reliever,” manager Craig Counsell said before Monday night’s rainout in Queens. “You’re going to get beat one day, and you’ve got to show up the next day and you’ve got to go out in the same situation. The three guys that pitched the seventh, eight and ninth on Saturday could have had the same innings on Sunday.
“Mariano Rivera gives up a run, he’s got the ninth inning on Sunday. That’s how this works.”
Despite being in New York this week, Counsell can’t call on Rivera, whose Hall of Fame career ended some time ago. He can’t even call on righty Daniel Palencia, with the Cubs’ IL’d closer shut down through the current road trip.
High-leverage situations have hardly followed a script for the Cubs this season, with relievers hitting the injured list with the same frequency as members of the team’s banged-up rotation.
After the bullpen blew a 5-0 lead against the Blue Jays on Saturday, those arms will continue to be underneath the microscope.
It will be on the likes of Trent Thornton, Caleb Thielbar and Jacob Webb – who were collectively tagged for eight runs on six hits, including a pair of homers, Saturday – to dust themselves off and get ready to answer the next call.
“That’s something you never really get too much better at,” righty reliever Phil Maton told the Sun-Times on Monday. “It’s always tough, and I feel like I’m especially hard on myself.
“All the bullpen guys get along. We’re all in kind of the same pit, just fighting, trying to put up zeros, just doing a tough job.”
Maton figured to be one of the more reliable arms in the Cubs’ late-inning mix after signing as a free agent in the offseason. A veteran of 10 big league seasons, he posted a 3.33 ERA over the past four years, playing for five different teams.
But the success hasn’t been there so far in a Cubs uniform, and he’s got a 5.92 ERA that would be his largest since 2019.
An experienced reliever, though, he’s been through enough bad moments to know how to turn them into bounces back.
Fortunately, he can lean on a sense of humor, too. Asked how it’s going trying to iron out his struggles, he went the sarcastic route.
“So much fun. It’s the best. Having a blast,” he quipped. “We’re getting there. I’m very thankful for [Cubs pitching coaches] Tommy [Hottovy] and Casey [Jacobson], they’ve put in a ton of work on me. I feel like it’s really starting to turn the corner.
“I’m very optimistic. But it’s one of those things where it’s, ‘That’s great, but you’ve got to go out and get the results now and put up some zeros.’ That’s what I’m looking forward to doing.”
And that’s the job for any relief arm, including the guys who were part of Saturday’s blow-up.
The unit’s 3.82 ERA is almost identical to last year’s 3.78 mark, entering Monday as the 11th best in baseball, the exact same rank it was a season ago. That group – with arms like Palencia, Thielbar, Brad Keller and Drew Pomeranz – earned plaudits for its successes.
It’s on this current group to gain a similar reputation, something that hasn’t happened yet. But make no mistake, the opportunities to do so are going to keep on coming.
“The three guys that pitched the seventh, eight and ninth on Saturday could have had the same innings on Sunday. That’s how this works,” Counsell said. “They’re aware of that, and they’ve done that. That’s not going to change. That’s the life of a major league reliever.
“You get eight guys. Those are your guys.”