MILWAUKEE -- Chad Patrick was relaxing in the hot tub in the Brewers’ clubhouse at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday when he got his assignment. He would be starting against the Cardinals in a little more than three hours.
Patrick, who battled butterflies so intense that he often got physically ill before his starts, and once this season even temporarily lost his vision, is thriving as a swingman under the theory that short notice is the best notice.
“I don’t want to know when I’m pitching,” he said earlier this month after moving out of Milwaukee’s starting rotation. “I like it this way.”
The 27-year-old still might have a future as a starting pitcher. He went into Wednesday's 2-1 win with a 2.96 ERA as a starter this season, but his stuff has ticked up so much in relief, starting with a surprise ascent to high-leverage work during last year’s postseason, that the Brewers saw the merits of moving him out of the rotation and into a bullpen deep in multi-inning arms. Among them are left-hander and MLB wins leader Aaron Ashby, and rookie left-hander Shane Drohan.
They can pitch three innings or more in the middle of games. Patrick struck out five Yankees over three-plus scoreless frames of a 10-inning Brewers win on May 9, for example. Three days later, he earned a hold by protecting a three-run lead with a 1-2-3 seventh inning against the Padres. And four days after that, he piggybacked with Logan Henderson against the Twins in Minneapolis, where Patrick allowed only one hit while covering the final four innings of a 2-1 win. He earned the first of his two saves that day.
So, when the Brewers needed a spot starter against the Cardinals, Patrick knew what to do.
“I treated it as if I was coming out of the bullpen,” Patrick said. “Not overthinking things and just going out there and competing.”
He instructed bullpen coach Charlie Greene to take that idea to its limits. As Wednesday’s first pitch approached and Patrick warmed up in the bullpen, Greene acted as if he was getting a call from the dugout.
“It was kind of funny,” Patrick said.
But it worked. Patrick touched 97 mph while throwing eight of nine pitches for strikes in the first inning -- a season high for first-inning velocity. He gave the Brewers four innings on 61 pitches, scattering five hits and one walk and allowing only one run, and setting the Brewers on a course that led to an eighth-inning comeback from a 1-0 deficit for a win over the Cardinals.
“He came out there guns blazing from pitch one,” Ashby said. “The competitive pitches in the first inning really set the tone. We were fired up in the bullpen. When you have to prepare for a bullpen day and he sets the tone like that, it helps a lot. I thought he pitched wonderfully.”
Ashby has been in a similar position early in his career, teetering between the rotation and bullpen. Health helped land him in the bullpen, where, like Patrick, a “let it eat” mentality has made him a weapon.
Does he see Patrick in a similar spot?
“I think Chad’s more than capable of being a frontline starter in this game,” Ashby said. “He’s got extremely unique stuff, and what we saw today is that when he’s dialed in and executing, he’s really good. For the time being, there’s that hybrid role. But I still see Chad as a frontline guy.”
Perhaps that’s the case. For now, Patrick prefers just waiting for the bullpen phone to ring.
“It takes the pressure away,” Patrick said. “As a starting pitcher, you create that pressure, trying to be so perfect. I just wanted to take that away from the day and go out there and be myself.”