Heavy bullpen usage catches up with Blue Jays in loss to Guardians

TORONTO — Five straight days of high-stress leverage in a season filled with tight games highlighted how much the Toronto Blue Jays are asking of their back-end relievers because of an inability to produce consistent offence.

And in dropping two of three over the weekend to the Cleveland Guardians, including Sunday’s 5-4 setback to cap a 3-3 homestand, there were signs the heavy workload heaped on Brendon Little, tied for the major-league lead with 18 games, Chad Green (16 games), Yimi Garcia (15 games) and Jeff Hoffman (14 games, including three two-inning outings), may be catching up to them.

“Delicately,” manager John Schneider said of how to handle the balance between using his best arms so frequently and ensuring they get enough recovery to be at their best. “Scoring more, obviously, is the answer to it more consistently. The last couple of days, even Hoff when he closed out (a 5-3 win Friday), you can tell these guys are grinding a little bit going into today with Little and Yimi yesterday (when giving up a game-winning grand slam in the ninth). You want to get some games where there’s some separation and other guys are in there. … We trust those guys in those spots, but it’s tough to consistently ask them to go out there and really execute.”

Time and again, though, that’s what the Blue Jays have done.

Of their 34 games thus far, eight have been decided by one run, 10 by two runs and a pair by three. Even within their 14 games settled by four or more, several were tight one way or another until the game opened up late, adding to the usage of the club’s most reliable relievers.

Against the Guardians, there were opportunities for the Blue Jays to get separation in all three games. They went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position Friday, 1-for-10 on Saturday and 4-for-11 on Sunday, when only two of those hits actually brought in runs.

The end result each time is that leverage work was necessary, and dominant as Hoffman, Garcia and Little have been this season, they aren’t going to be perfect.

“Just like we talked about with a starter when they get fatigued as they go throughout a game, same thing holds true for relievers when you’re out there quite often,” said Schneider. “You look at location, and you look at stuff that you may not get as much swing and miss, things like that. That happens. Hopefully, the off-day resets us a little bit going on out west.”

That was evident in the tightest of spots over the weekend.

Hoffman, who threw 27 pitches in a two-inning outing Wednesday, threw 26 more Friday while allowing just a hit and a walk with one strikeout in finding a way to close out the Blue Jays’ lone win in the series.

Afterwards, he noted, “There were some two-strike pitches that I should have hit that I didn’t. That can be a lot of different things. I felt good, my energy levels were good. I felt ready to pitch. I just didn’t grow enough competitive pitches in those counts, so ended up being a longer inning than I would have wanted.”

In Saturday’s 5-3 loss, Garcia, pitching for the third time in four days, grinded through a messy 32-pitch ninth in which Guardians hitters fouled off 11 pitches and eventually wore him down enough for Daniel Schneeman to launch a decisive, two-out grand slam.

Garcia probably got hosed on a couple of pitches during a walk to Carlos Santana earlier in the inning, but during a mound visit before facing Bo Naylor, whose walk loaded the bases for Schneeman, he told catcher Tyler Heineman he wanted to throw two-seamers rather four-seamers because “my fastball was cutting inside to the lefties.”

“That’s not normal for me,” he said. “My fastball goes up or away (from lefties).”

A byproduct of fatigue?

“Can be,” he said. “I don’t know.”

In the finale, Little took over after Yariel Rodriguez allowed a leadoff single to Angel Martinez and issued three walks, one of them to Santana that plated a run that pushed Cleveland’s lead to 5-3, insurance that proved essential when the Blue Jays got one in the bottom half off Emmanuel Clase, himself pitching on consecutive days.

Little had thrown 23 pitches Friday and ended up adding another 24 Sunday, when he pointed to feeling rushed in his delivery rather than fatigue.

“I almost felt like my back heel was coming off the dirt as I was lifting my leg, just, like, rushing towards the plate too much,” he said, noting that to his first batter, Steven Kwan, “everything was inside. I wanted to show him in, so the first two (pitches) I was actually pretty happy with. But then need to go back away from him (in what finished as a four-pitch walk). Felt like the only pitch I was throwing for strikes was the curveball, so I probably just should have leaned on that a little bit more, especially in bigger situations. The sinker was just not good today.”

Maybe that’s to be expected once in a while, given that the 28-year-old has never seen this much leverage or usage before, saying, “This is definitely the most it’s ever been. In the minors, you’re in a six-game block and you’re probably throwing twice that week. It’s very spaced out. So it’s definitely newer to be throwing this much, but it’s what you want.”

Of that, there’s no doubt, and the Blue Jays’ strength and training staff drew credit from all three relievers for their work in helping them recover to be ready for their next outing.

Garcia, for instance, didn’t even pick up a baseball Sunday to rest his arm, although he planned to play catch on the off-day Monday to get it moving again. He said he actually prefers pitching on back-to-back days rather than with too much rest and said, “I was OK” on Saturday, adding that, “I’ve been doing this my whole life.”

Hoffman said he’s already built “a lot of trust and faith in the strength and training staff” and that after a two-inning outing like the one Wednesday, “there are things that we do modality-wise that my body responds well to.”

“From there, making sure my routine in the weight room is sound and that I’m not overworking myself in there, but also getting enough to keep me strong,” he added. “To me, I feel like if you’re just maintaining, you’re kind of moving backwards. I want to feel like I’m getting stronger for the year.”

Had the Blue Jays tied the game in the ninth Sunday, he was up and warming to be ready for the 10^th.

They didn’t, and that’s an all-too-familiar story this season, one that the hitters are working hard to try and alleviate.

Schneider pointed to some “progression for the offence” during a homestand in which they built a home-run streak to a season-high six games, saying, “I like the way Bo (Bichette) swung it today. Tony (Santander) had really good at-bats, competitive at-bats. I think he’s swinging the bat better. It was a good series for (Andres) Gimenez, kind of getting back on his feet a little bit. (Alejandro) Kirk is swinging the bat. It’s kind of there and just couldn’t really get it at the right time this series.”

Which meant another taxing weekend for the Blue Jays’ leverage arms in the midst of what’s already been a very taxing season.

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