Two save situations without Daniel Palencia, two saves for Andrew Kittredge.
The Cubs likely didn’t think they were acquiring a new closer when they traded for Kittredge in a deadline deal. Turns out, however, that Jed Hoyer’s front office did land a new ninth-inning man, even if manager Craig Counsell isn’t placing labels on any of his relievers.
With Palencia hitting the IL on Monday, Kittredge closed out a 6-4 victory over the Rays on Friday, his second save in as many Cubs wins.
Just don’t think back-to-back saves mean Kittredge is the new, exclusive guy when the Cubs have a ninth-inning lead.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Kittredge said after the game. “Guys are aware that they’re going to be asked to do something they weren’t asked to two weeks ago. Maybe senses are heightened a little bit. But everybody understands what their job is and is going to continue to do that.”
Some fans might like the traditional titles of closer and setup man and so on, but Counsell isn’t one for publicly designating bullpen roles, preferring to describe his hurlers as guys who “get outs.”
“I try to keep it not very complicated, and that’s how I see it: ‘Let’s get people out,’” he said. “The order of it isn’t the most important thing. The most important thing is to get the 27 outs.”
Regardless of that preference, Palencia has served as the Cubs’ closer for the majority of the season and did so very well until a rough patch punctuated by Sunday’s ninth-inning disaster, in which he coughed up five runs and left with an injury before recording an out. It was the most glaring moment in a recent trend; he’s got a hideous 8.74 ERA in his last 14 appearances.
While he’s sidelined, the Cubs will turn to the rest of their bullpen, which has served them well, for the most part. A 4.48 second-half ERA, doesn’t compare too favorably to their 3.54 mark from the first half. But several guys have found late-game success, and the last two games have been prime examples of what those arms can do.
Wednesday, the bullpen retired all but one of the 15 batters it faced. Friday, it was 12 up, 12 down.
“They were perfect,” Counsell said. “The season changes, and your jobs and innings might change. And you’ve got to be ready to capture opportunities.”
Kittredge has a 1.26 ERA in his last 15 appearances. Brad Keller’s 1-2-3 eighth inning Friday extended his streak of scoreless outings to 22 since the All-Star break. Caleb Thielbar has a 2.04 ERA in 61 trips to the mound this season.
Those three and every other chucker in the Cubs bullpen will be on call with Palencia sidelined, no dramatic change, they say, in what’s been a season-long mindset.
“We’re just kind of all hands on deck right now,” Keller told the Sun-Times on Friday, relaying an apparent relief-corps motto. “Obviously, [Palencia is] a huge missing part of our bullpen. … But it’s the ‘pass the baton, next man up, whoever gets that call go in there and do your job’ kind of thing.
“No matter what inning we get called on [to pitch], you just go out there and put up a zero and give the team a chance. It’s what we’ve tried to think about all year long, and we’re trying to continue it.”
Once Palencia returns, might that approach stay the same?
Even as Counsell has called on Palencia in save situations all season, his commitment to a somewhat role-less pitching staff seems to outweigh any assumptions, especially with the playoffs approaching.
Asked whether Palencia, who has struggled since the beginning of August, would return to his spot as the team’s closer upon his return from the IL, Counsell said Palencia will return to “[the role] of getting outs. … We’re in the getting-outs mode. That’s what we’re going to do.”
In other words, it’s all hands on deck.
