I suppose now's as good a time as any to sort through the shambles that used to be the White Sox bullpen before the Cleveland Indians stormed into town. A summary of the carnage:
|
PU
|
IP |
H |
R
|
ER |
HR |
BB |
K |
ERA |
Game 1
|
3 |
5.0 |
7
|
4 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
--- |
Game 2
|
4 |
2.2 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
--- |
Game 3
|
5
|
3.0 |
6 |
7 |
7
|
1 |
2 |
4 |
--- |
Game 4
|
5
|
2.0 |
3 |
3 |
3
|
1 |
3 |
2 |
--- |
Total
|
17
|
12.2 |
21 |
17 |
15
|
2 |
11 |
13 |
10.66 |
That's simply remarkable -- as the series went on, the bullpen became less efficient. That's including the 4 1/3 scoreless innings thrown by Mike MacDougal and Matt Thornton combined! Take them out of the equation, and Brandon McCarthy, Neal Cotts, David Riske, Boone Logan, Sean Tracey, Dustin Hermanson, Charlie Haeger, Bobby Jenks posted a 16.20 ERA put together.
Making things more difficult is the fact that Ozzie only made one bad move -- and that's sending McCarthy out during a tie game in late innings. Every other call was understandable, and had the relievers pretended to be major-league quality on Saturday night with a nine-run lead, ThornDougal would've been available for a situation on Sunday that truly merited its appearance.
McCarthy is on some sort of skid, a more dynamic one than Cotts' sustained crappiness since the All-Star Break. His loss today was his seventh of the season, and his third in his last five appearances. He's had more losses than innings pitched (2 2/3), and I think it's getting to him.
He's been scored upon in his last five outings (six if you count the 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball against Minnesota, which I won't due to his brilliance on the whole), and the common link is the disappearance of his change-up. He rarely throws it, which is troubling since
it's his best pitch. His fastball is average, and his curveball serves the purpose of giving batters something else to look at. The change is McCarthy's one true trick, and when he doesn't have it, he doesn't fool anybody.
Evidently, it's also his flakiest pitch, and it seems like he's scared to throw it in situations where one swing decides the game. I'm not going to say what's going through his head, but from the outside, he looks like he adopts two different personas based on the game scenario. One-Inning Brandon tries to be like other one-inning relievers, who only need two pitches to get through their night's work. Multiple-Inning Brandon knows that he'll need his entire repertoire to get by, and he'll stick with a pitch that doesn't feel right because he knows he needs everything in the bag to work through a whole lineup.
This is all merely an exercise in armchair psychology, but that's what I'm seeing. Until he shows that he's the same pitcher night in and night out, I don't think Ozzie can afford to use him past the seventh inning in anything resembling a close game.
The problem is, you could say that for just about every other reliever on the staff as well. ThornDougal has its work cut out for it.