Despite Friday nightmare, Rockies bullpen has been incredibly good this season

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DENVER- What a difference a year makes.

In 2018, the Colorado Rockies bullpen had the worst ERA (5.78) in the National League, from May 13-June 12.

In 2019, they had the best ERA (3.35) in MLB, from May 13-June 12.

There are some new faces and some familiar ones who have put in the time to make themselves better, and one notable convert who has taken to his new role in relief with the tenacity that has defined his career, paving the way.

A year ago, the Rockies had turned to a number of young and unproven players who got unwelcome introductions to the big leagues.

Veteran Bryan Shaw led the club that month in innings pitched and was in the midst of a year-long meltdown, posting a 9.42 ERA.

After him, Harrison Musgrave, Chris Rusin, and Brooks Pounders (remember him?) were used the most often and while Musgrave was holding his own (3.46 ERA) Rusin and Pounders got… well pounded.

Oddly enough, Shaw still led the ‘pen in innings pitched over the same month a year later, but his resurgence has been a huge part of why this is the tale of two very different seasons.

Or, at least, it was.

Then on Friday, June 14, in by far their worst collective performance of the season, the Rockies bullpen was absolutely shellacked.

They blew a six-run lead in the ninth inning and ended up losing 16-12 in a game where their starter went five innings and gave up only one run.

Furthermore, the calamity unfolded against a San Diego Padres team that is ranked second to last in the national league in scoring runs.

The future will tell us if this was an isolated horrible night or the beginning of a trend, but there are plenty of contextual reasons to hold off on any kind of panic about the relief corp, at least for the moment.

First, as we’ve shown, there are a lot of differences between last year and this year, and it would also be fair to note that many of the relievers who’ve been responsible for the rebound to this point we’re not at fault in the loss to the Padres.

Yes, closer Wade Davis, who has a tendency to play with fire and not get burned, did this time. That also happens and tends to balance out by the end of the year.

But the main culprit was lefty Mike Dunn who has been up and down in terms of injuries and performance for his entire Rockies tenure. One might also fairly lob some criticism toward manager Bud Black for sticking with Dunn so long but he was also likely trying to stay away from his most heavily used arms in a game that really ought to have been under control.

It is fair to say that with this outing Colorado can clearly point to left-handed reliever as an area of need. They may turn to youngsters Phillip Diehl or Ben Bowden from within or they may go shopping.

But both Davis and Díaz have good enough recent history, and in the case of the former a long resume, to not make too much of a night when everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Díaz in his first real stint against MLB competition in two years has been fantastic so far but they were bound to be some hiccups along the way.

Davis will continue to close out ball games as long as his save ratio remains excellent regardless of how ugly the ones on the wrong side of it are.

Baseball is a game where we have to judge you on a full body of work because reaching conclusions after one out of 162 is foolish.

Of course, they also all count in the standings and for a team that is watching the Los Angeles Dodgers speed away from the division and is looking at the prospect of their season coming down to a single game for the third straight year, these moments are unquestionably painful.

But even in this disaster of a game, some of the main reasons why the bullpen has been so steady remained so. Shaw limited the damage and Oberg pitched two clean innings, giving up just one hit and striking out three.

There are still fair questions to be raised about Chad Bettis, who has been mostly very good since converting to a relief role, and both Jake McGee and Carlos Estevez who each gave up a single run against the Padres and have a tendency to allow traffic.

But each of them also did what Dunn, Davis, and Díaz failed to. They got outs and held a lead.

It’s also worth noting that while the offense was wandering in the desert for the first two weeks of the season and the starting pitching has been a giant question mark for most of the year, the bullpen had been good-to-great until Friday night.

What a difference a day makes.

If the possibility of the players they already have putting this behind them and/or getting better doesn’t strike you as particularly likely, there is still another reason for Rockies fans to not lose hope.

For this is the one area that the Colorado club has shown a great deal of aggressiveness recently on the trade market, acquiring Seunghwan Oh and Pat Neshek at the deadline each of the last two seasons.

Bullpens are fickle things, from day-to-day, from year-to-year, from inning-to-inning, and you never know what tomorrow may bring.

But the larger sample size and the plethora of options at their disposal suggest that there are plenty of paths that could be bright for the Rockies bullpen.