In the months of July and August, the Arizona Diamondbacks went a combined 20-31. That's not exactly the record that will give many fans visions of a World Series appearance, but manager Torey Lovullo never hit the panic button while preaching patience.
After winning Game 7 of the NLCS on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies, Lovullo admitted that the Arizona bullpen "was the area of our team that needed a little bit of a bump" during that downturn.
However, the Diamondbacks went out and got the pieces they needed to do just that, trading for Seattle Mariners closer Paul Sewald. With the arrival of Sewald, Kevin Ginkel moved from closing opportunities into a setup role and began to thrive, posting a 3.00 ERA/2.51 FIP with opponents hitting .159 against him in his new role.
How the Arizona Diamondbacks transformed the bullpen into a strength
Andrew Saalfrank's arrival with his MLB debut on September 5 gave Lovullo another key piece of the bullpen that wasn't there before the MLB trade deadline. Suddenly, with a rebuilt bullpen, things began to click, Lovullo said.
"We got guys, we got the pieces, but they hadn't yet shaped or formed," Lovullo said after admitting he wouldn't have thought in mid-August that the bullpen would have come together in this fashion. "And it took a little time for us to understand what the new roles were and how people were going to be used.
"I think once they got to that point where Paul was locking down that ninth, and we were filling it in with Kevin, and at the time it was Kyle Nelson because Andrew Saalfrank wasn't here yet, and then we picked up (Ryan) Thompson. It was one thing after another that fell into the right place, and once they got their roles, they took off."
Taking off is exactly what the Diamondbacks did, turning what was a combined 4.67 ERA through mid-August into a 3.26 ERA from that point on. To put it in perspective, Arizona went from being the fifth-worst bullpen to the fifth-best once those roles settled in.
When the World Series begins on Friday night in Arlington, Arizona's bullpen and its effectiveness will be one of the key factors to watch if the Diamondbacks are indeed going to keep their surprising postseason run going.
