The Orioles bullpen is relying on a lot of the same names this season ? Jamie Walker, Chad Bradford and Jim Johnson.
The results so far, however, have been quite different.
Baltimore?s bullpen has been among the best in the majors, and is a huge reason the team entered last night?s game against Seattle just two games out of first place.
“We know we are going to be able to compete with teams,” reliever Dennis Sarfate said. “We just ask starters to do their job and give us a chance at the end of the game. We are throwing the ball real well and it?s kind of fun.”
The bullpen struggled last season, as it was called on to throw 524.2 innings en route to a 5.71 earn-run average, second worst out of 30 teams. Orioles relievers allowed a total of 333 earned runs, 98 more than the American League average. And when opponents didn?t get a hit ? they batted .275 against Baltimore?s bullpen ? they usually got on base, as the unit issued a league-high 279 walks.
But this Orioles bullpen is a much different group, ranked fourth in the majors with a 3.57 earn-run average and is a major reason the team was 11-8 entering its seven-game road trip. The unit has allowed just 25 earned runs in 63 innings, but more importantly, has just 21 walks against 45 strikeouts, enabling the team to go 5-1 in one-run games.
In the offseason, the team added right-handers Matt Albers, Greg Aquino, Jim Johnson and Sarfate, but no high-priced free agents. But the biggest difference might be at the end of the bench. Last year?s closers, Chris Ray and Danys Baez, are likely out for the season with injuries, and have been replaced by George Sherill, a left-hander acquired in the trade that sent ace Erik Bedard to Seattle.
Sherill, 31, has been consistently solid when called upon, converting all six of his save opportunities and striking out seven.
The key to the improved play this year? Sherill said the bullpen?s key to success is its high level of confidence.
“We have been doing pretty well, taken our lumps, but so does everybody,” he said. “It?s just a matter of putting some good ones together and I think we have been doing that.”
Bradford and Walker also have been stabilizing forces for the unit, taking the nicknames of “Shake” and “Bake,” used by two prominent teammates from the popular NASCAR-themed comedy “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” The light-hearted duo have kept the bullpen loose and embraced the monikers, with Walker even having a T-shirt that reads “Bake.”
“Some of the guys around here just came up with it, so we just kind of rolled with it,” Bradford said. “It was funny last year, so we kind of kept it going this year.”
Examiner writer Andrew Vitelli contributed to this report.
