This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SAN FRANCISCO -- With veteran right-handers Alex Cobb and Ross Stripling on the injured list, the Giants have leaned on their bullpen to fill the gaps in their starting rotation, a strategy that’s been sustainable thanks to the length provided by relievers who have thrived in bulk-inning roles.

Sean Manaea, Jakob Junis, Tristan Beck, Keaton Winn and Sean Hjelle -- all of whom have experience starting -- have often come in behind openers and supplied multi-inning efforts during the Giants’ recent run of bullpen games, minimizing the amount of relievers the club needs to cover nine innings.

This setup worked especially well during the Giants’ four-game series against the Padres earlier this week, when Beck, Winn and Hjelle combined to allow only one run over 12 innings while working out of the bullpen.

“Right now what I’ll say is you can see a cascading effect when Hjelle is covering the innings that he’s covering [on Wednesday],” manager Gabe Kapler said. “Tristan Beck is able to give us long chunks of games. Sean Manaea is available and doing the same things. It just keeps a bullpen fresh and healthy in a lot of ways. We have had a lot of bullpen games, but more accurately, games where a bullpen pitcher starts the game and then we have a length guy or multiple-inning guys. So while we’ve covered a lot of innings with our ‘pen, our leverage relievers have not been especially taxed, even though they’ve done plenty of good work.”

Homegrown ace Logan Webb entered Saturday leading the Majors with 105 1/3 innings, but the Giants’ starting rotation as a whole has logged only 362 2/3 innings this year, which ranks 29th in the Majors. San Francisco’s bullpen ranks third in the Majors with 317 innings, but only one of its relievers -- closer Camilo Doval -- ranks in the top 25 in the Majors in appearances this season. Doval leads the Giants with 35 relief outings, which is tied for seventh in the Majors.

“If you look at the usage of our leverage relievers versus the use of the other leverage relievers around the league, we’re in a pretty decent spot,” Kapler said. “It does have a lot to do with the success of those pitchers who are coming into these games because it doesn’t work when you have a length pitcher come in and struggle to get out of the first or second inning. Then you have to use more relievers. Under the circumstances, it’s been a solid system for us and we probably want to keep running that play from time to time.”

Despite the steady workload, the Giants’ bullpen has shown no signs of wearing down in recent weeks, going 12-2 with an MLB-best 1.97 ERA since May 22. The relief corps has allowed only seven homers over that stretch, tied for the second-fewest in the Majors.

The Giants are 8-3 in 11 bullpen games this year and will look to keep that success going when they send rookie Ryan Walker to the mound to open Saturday afternoon’s game against the D-backs. It’s unclear who will follow Walker, but between Manaea, Beck and Winn, the Giants will have no shortage of quality options to help take down innings.

“It’s always good to get as much buy-in as possible,” Kapler said. “It makes these things a whole lot easier. At the same time, I think our pitchers know that they’re here to pitch. They want the baseball. They want a chance to help us win games. These guys, I think, see it as a badge of honor when they’re able to get through four innings or so make sure the other guys get a day of rest. It doesn’t always work out that way, but I do think they take that responsibility seriously. They recognize the importance of it. I think the more we do it successfully, the more bought in people get, both internally and externally.”