NEW YORK — If any members of the Cubs’ bullpen needed a day or two to recover, they can thank Mother Nature, who washed away back-to-back games in different time zones Sunday and Monday.
Most likely, though, the Cubs’ relievers who were scorched in the implosion Saturday against the Blue Jays at Wrigley Field were ready to be called on the next day.
‘‘That’s just your job as a reliever,’’ manager Craig Counsell said before the rainout Monday against the Mets. ‘‘You’re going to get beat one day, and you’ve got to show up the next day and go out in the same situation. The three guys that pitched the seventh, eight and ninth on Saturday could have had the same innings on Sunday.
‘‘Mariano Rivera gives up a run, he’s got the ninth inning on Sunday. That’s how this works.’’
Despite being in New York, Counsell can’t call on Rivera, whose Hall of Fame career with the Yankees ended some time ago. He can’t even call on closer Daniel Palencia, who is on the injured list with a strained flexor in his right arm and shut down through the road trip.
High-leverage situations hardly have followed a script for the Cubs this season, with relievers hitting the IL with the same frequency as members of the banged-up rotation.
After the bullpen blew a 5-0 lead Saturday against the Blue Jays, those arms will continue to be under the microscope.
It will be on pitchers Trent Thornton, Caleb Thielbar and Jacob Webb — who collectively were tagged for eight runs and six hits, including a pair of home runs, in the meltdown — to dust themselves off and get ready to answer the next call.
‘‘That’s something you never really get too much better at,’’ reliever Phil Maton told the Sun-Times on Monday. ‘‘It’s always tough, and I feel like I’m especially hard on myself.
‘‘All the bullpen guys get along. We’re all in kind of the same pit, just fighting, trying to put up zeros, just doing a tough job.’’
Maton figured to be one of the more reliable arms in the Cubs’ late-inning mix after signing as a free agent in the offseason. A veteran of 10 big-league seasons, he had posted a 3.33 ERA in the last four seasons.
But the success hasn’t been there so far in a Cubs uniform, and he has a 5.92 ERA that would be his highest since 2019.
As an experienced reliever, he has been through enough bad moments to know how to turn them into bounce-backs.
Fortunately, he can lean on a sense of humor, too. Asked how it’s going trying to iron out his struggles, he went the sarcastic route.
‘‘So much fun. It’s the best. Having a blast,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re getting there. I’m very thankful for [Cubs pitching coaches] Tommy [Hottovy] and Casey [Jacobson]. They’ve put in a ton of work on me. I feel like it’s really starting to turn the corner.
‘‘I’m very optimistic. But it’s one of those things where it’s, ‘That’s great, but you’ve got to go out and get the results now and put up some zeros.’ That’s what I’m looking forward to doing.’’
That’s the job for any reliever.
The bullpen’s 3.82 ERA is almost identical to its 3.78 mark of last season and entered play Monday as the 11th-best in baseball, the same rank it had a season ago. That group, with arms such as Palencia, Thielbar, Brad Keller and Drew Pomeranz, earned plaudits for its successes.
It’s on this group to earn a similar reputation, something that hasn’t happened yet. But the opportunities to do so are going to keep on coming.
‘‘That’s how this works,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘They’re aware of that, and they’ve done that. That’s not going to change. That’s the life of a major-league reliever.
‘‘You get eight guys, and those are your guys.’’