CLEVELAND — It hasn’t been totally smooth sailing for the Seattle Mariners’ revamped bullpen through the first 14 games, but it’s hard not to view the early returns as a significant improvement over last year.
The relief corps carried a 2.76 ERA into Wednesday’s game against the Indians after getting 41/3 scoreless innings from Mike Montgomery and Tony Zych in Tuesday’s 3-2 loss.
“They’ve been great,” manager Scott Servais said. “About as good as we could have imagined.”
The bullpen added three more scoreless innings in Wednesday’s 2-1 victory at Progressive Field when Joel Peralta, Joaquin Benoit and Steve Cishek protected a one-run lead.
That ERA is down to 2.58.
The bullpen, prior to the game, was limiting opponents to a .167 batting average, which led all American League clubs. That mark is also heading down. The unit has allowed just two runs in its last 221/3 innings.
Contrast that with a year ago, when the Mariners saw their bullpen break down repeatedly while compiling a 4.15 ERA that ranked 12th among the 15 AL clubs. It ranked 13th with an opponent’s batting average of .258.
New general manager Jerry Dipoto responded by overhauling the unit. None of the seven current relievers began last year with the club. Four were acquired since the end of last season.
“I spent my entire major-league career pitching 400 games in the bullpen,” Dipoto said. “Never did anything else. If you think you’ve got it figured out, you don’t. The bullpen is about as unpredictable as it gets.”
So far, it’s mostly been good — although there were a few early slips.
Cishek gave up a tie-breaking homer to Oakland’s Chris Coghlan in the ninth inning of a 3-2 loss on April 8. Peralta surrendered one-run leads in the eighth inning on April 10 and April 13.
Two points to note.
¦ Coghlan’s homer is the only run allowed by Cishek in seven innings over six appearances.
¦ Peralta was filling in for Joaquin Benoit, another newcomer, as the primary set-up reliever. Benoit missed time because of tightness in his back and shoulder but returned Saturday with a scoreless eighth inning in a 3-2 victory at New York.
Benoit has allowed only one hit in four scoreless outings.
“Peralta has been phenomenal since he gave up that last homer,” Cishek said. “I’ve tried to keep the ball down since I gave up the homer to Cogs. And Benoit is healthy.
“Beyond that, (Mike) Montgomery looks phenomenal. He kept us in the ballgame (on Tuesday). (Tony) Zych has lightning stuff. (Nick) Vincent has a nasty cutter.
And (Vidal) Nuno in New York, my goodness. He pitched back-to-back days and got us out of huge jams.”
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