TORONTO — Designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion extended two streaks with his two-run, walk-off home run on Tuesday.
The 4-3 victory over the Miami Marlins was the seventh win in a row for the Blue Jays. Not only that, it was their 17th straight win without a save.
That’s right. They have not had a save from their bullpen since May 4. That was left-hander Brett Cecil’s second save in his third save opportunity of the season.
The Blue Jays are 17-16 since but Cecil has not had a save opportunity in that time even though he took over the closer’s role late in April from right-hander Miguel Castro.
In the saveless span, there were three walk-off wins and three complete-game wins by the starters, which obviously meant there were no chances for Cecil to pick up a save.
Cecil said he’s never seen a stretch like this but no one in the bullpen is making a big deal about it. The Blue Jays also have a no-quit offense that is capable of piling on runs and leads the majors with 314 runs scored. The saving grace is that a win is a win.
“No, it’s not really talked about,” Cecil said. “I think the first time we kind of laughed about it was the other day (Sunday) when it was 5-2 and (first baseman Justin) Smoak got a pinch-hit double that scored two runs and not having a save situation. I was standing up, finished my warmups to get ready to go into the game and as I turned around a lot of guys put their hands over their mouths and were just chuckling. But there’s no complaints from the pitching staff at all because I know there’s going to be a time when we’re going to be needed four out of five days, three out of four days.”
There was another possibility of a save May 29 at Minnesota. Left-hander Mark Buehrle gave up four runs in the first inning and then faced the minimum number of batters the rest of the way. When the Blue Jays scored twice in the top of the ninth to take a 6-4, Buehrle was in such command that he was left in to finish the game. Manager John Gibbons is no slave to the save rule and he didn’t want to interrupt Buehrle’s mastery that night.
Reliever Steve Delabar agreed with the move.
“When a guy’s cruising like that, sometimes when you do the move, like his pitch count is kind of like a hundred and then you go, ‘oh let’s get our closer in here,’ you disrupt the flow of the game,” Delabar said. “No, let him go. He’s has total control of the game, even though he had rough first inning, he’s gained control and everything is good now. So you don’t want to disrupt the flow, you want to keep it going.’
Delabar notes that although this stretch without saves is rare in this era, Cecil does have 13 games finished and that’s important as well. And, at times, he has been deprived of a save situation by add-on runs late in the game.
“We’re one big machine so those guys are doing their job really, really well right now,” Delabar said. “There’s times in the season where you hit the highs and lows and it’ll be time for the pitchers to do our job. Maybe that’s when the saves start piling up for Cecil.
“And the starters have been doing a good job so far and we’re going to ride their backs as long as we can.”
He knows that there will come a time when the bullpen phone starts ringing off the hook and it will be the bullpen to the rescue with Cecil applying the finishing touches for the save.