Pitching at the back end of a bullpen for a team in the playoff chase, adrenaline becomes your friend.
As shown by Adbert Alzolay’s typically large fist pump after weathering a rocky two-run ninth Sunday, closing out a 4-3 win over the Royals for his MLB-best 14th save since July 5, Cubs relievers don’t lack for it.
“Adbert has hurt my hand high-fiving after games,” right-hander Michael Fulmer said. “Trust me, I go left-hand with him now. We know that he’s one of those guys that thrives in situations like that.”
For a former starter like Alzolay, the innings load of closing won’t approach his professional career-high. Nor will working as the Cubs best setup option against lefties approach the innings Mark Leiter Jr. covered in the past as a multi-inning reliever. But even accounting for setup man Julian Merryweather, Fulmer stands alone among Cubs high-leverage options for having experienced a full major league season working the later innings, and is a resource to his teammates because of it.
“It’s funny in this game; I’m the oldest guy in this bullpen, but Fulmer, he’s got the most experience,” Leiter, 32, said. “We’re together all the time. You’re constantly talking through soreness and different things to get the soreness out. Different things to recover faster, different ways to warm up quicker, more efficient, different ways to expedite the recovery.”
It’s less the innings, and more the lack of recovery time that takes getting used to.
After pitching Saturday, Alzolay’s ninth inning against Kansas City was the 12th time in his major league career he has pitched on zero days of rest. All those games have come this season. The vast majority of such outings in the careers of Merryweather and Leiter—who also both pitched Saturday and Sunday—have also happened this season, as they’ve emerged as trusted setup men for a contender for the first time ever.
When Alzolay’s slider is sharp and his fastball command is on, he looks like an All-Star closer. But navigating days like Sunday when his slider is backing up might be just as meaningful, and is a growth process the Cubs will see happen—across their bullpen—in real time down the stretch while fighting for the NL Central crown.
“That’s the guy we have at the back end who has had a lot of success for us,” said manager David Ross. “He needed some balls hit at some guys and that happened late. But Adbert’s done a phenomenal job for us, whether he doesn’t close it out right there or he does, that doesn’t diminish how we’re going to do things moving forward.”
Another element at play is facing the heart of an opposing lineup with the game on the line multiple times in a series, requires relievers to almost think about sequencing and changing up looks like a starter. It’s here Fulmer notes that 12-year veteran Yan Gomes is invaluable for reading swings, gauging whether an adjustment is necessary and allowing pitchers to focus on executing.
But having never gotten closer to the playoffs than his rookie season in Detroit when the Tigers finished three games out, what Fulmer stresses to his pen mates is the thrill of the chase will push the physical challenges to the background.
“If you haven’t done it, you’re going to get used to it now,” Fulmer said. “There’s no sitting back and trying to ease into these situations in the middle of a playoff race. It’s August, we have another month left, but these games matter.”
“At some point they’ve got to do it,” Ross said. “They didn’t start the season saying they’re going to take the last month off because they’ve never done it. They go out and prepare in the offseason for a full workload, same with Justin Steele. We’re on a winning team that’s going out and proving that we’re good. They’re going to go out and do their job.”
