Few things plague bullpen management like a team marrying their highest-leverage relief pitchers to the latest possible point in a ball game.
This was the case on Wednesday afternoon in Tampa Bay as John Gibbons turned to his bullpen’s eighth arm to record the game’s two most important outs up to that point. Instead, the first batter Arnold Leon faced took him deep to centre-field and Toronto’s lead disappeared.
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Toronto was facing a difficult bullpen game from the outset in this one. Both Brett Cecil and Jesse Chavez were reported to be on a rest day after pitching Tuesday, and we later learned that the same applied to Drew Storen after he pitched Monday but warmed and was ready during yesterday’s game.