This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon’s Reds Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ST. PETERSBURG -- The Reds are off to their best start in 20 years and one area that often gets less attention -- the bullpen -- deserves a lot of the credit.
After Kyle Nicolas walked five and allowed four runs in the Reds' 12-6 win on Tuesday night against the Rays, Cincinnati's relievers have a Major League-best 2.54 bullpen ERA this season. Since April 11, they have allowed 10 runs -- six earned -- over 37 2/3 innings (1.43 ERA) with no home runs allowed. The group has given up only five homers overall.
“I think it’s the trust between one another, knowing that no matter who goes in the game in what situation, they can take care of that situation," said setup man Tony Santillan, who has thrown 10 scoreless innings to begin this season. "No spot is too big for any of the individuals back there. It helps the team. Any name that’s called can get the job done.”
While closer Emilio Pagán has six saves in eight chances, four other relievers -- Santillan, Graham Ashcraft, Brock Burke and Connor Phillips -- each have one save.
The bullpen's efforts have enabled the Reds to win close games, even when the Reds lineup is at or near the bottom of MLB in several offensive categories and when the rotation has been unable to get work exceptionally deeper into games.
Cincinnati (16-8) is a perfect 10-0 in games decided by two or fewer runs.
"There are going to be days when you don’t have your best stuff and things might not go your way," Ashcraft said. "But to know if you’re able to at least do your job and keep it close enough that the guy behind you can come in and shut the door … it makes it hard for you not to have the confidence for going into every game that you have a chance of winning with the amount of competitiveness we have.”
What has made the Reds' bullpen deep? Obviously, better performances is a place to start. But as Santillan noted, there's also versatility and the ability for manager Terry Francona to mix up how he uses relievers and not run one or two guys into the ground.
“At times last year, I don’t mean this to sound negative, if we had a lead, we wanted to go to certain guys," Francona said. "Certainly now, you have Ashcraft, Tony and Pagán but you’ve [also] got Pierce Johnson, Burke, [Sam] Moll. Their innings are all kind of even, which is a good thing.
"So if we’re down a run or two, we can try to stay in a game. There’s been days where guys haven’t been available and somebody else has pitched. I’m not sure we could have pulled that off before.”
Santillan isn't surprised things have gone this well for the bullpen to begin the season.
“If you asked any of us in the bullpen at the start of the year that this was going to happen, everybody would have been on board," Santillian said. "We all believed in each other. We all knew the special group we had back there. Just talking with each other, we knew we had an elite group of guys."
Can this stretch of success be sustained over the grind of a long 162-game season? Francona knows that is a big ask unless some things change.
“I get nervous," Francona said. "Our bullpen guys have a lot of appearances. They all do. It’s not like it’s just one guy. So hopefully at some point, we can start to get a little more length [from starters].”