ST. PETERSBURG -- Given recent Rays history, the idea of the Rays having the best bullpen in baseball sounded like the punch line from a Jay Leno monologue. There had to be a catch in there somewhere.
But it's right there in the numbers: the Rays' 'pen has a 2.26 ERA -- best in the Major Leagues, and opponents are hitting a paltry .210 against them.
Yes, the Rays' much-maligned bullpen has shored up its ranks. Over the offseason, the Rays acquired closer Troy Percival, left-handed specialist Trever Miller, in addition to adding former starter J.P. Howell as a long reliever. They combined with the remnants of the previous year's bullpen, which includes Dan Wheeler, Scott Dohmann, Al Reyes, and Gary Glover.
Percival is the newcomer but the bullpen is his because baseball custom mandates that the bullpen always belongs to the closer.
In Percival's opinion, the big difference the Rays are seeing in this year's 'pen comes in the way of experience.
"Guys don't panic," Percival said. "You get guys on base, they aren't going to panic or walk themselves out of innings. If it's a one-run game you're not going to have guys panic. If we have a bad day today, we'll come back tomorrow."
Experience is especially critical in the late innings, which are definitely different in comparison to the earlier innings. The key for any reliever is the belief that all innings are created equally.
"If you go out there thinking, 'The game's on the line, I've got to do this or that,' you're in trouble," Percival said. "All you've got to do is focus on each pitch that you throw. A lot of times, the inexperienced guys don't exactly know what to throw. They don't throw with conviction. They don't throw to a spot. They just throw."
Wheeler also believes that having an experienced group helps.
"I just think there's a veteran group out here now," Wheeler said. "The guys here last year had some tremendous talent and some tremendous arms. They just didn't get to the point where they believed that their stuff was good enough to be here. ... I think the difference this year is we have some guys who can go out there and make some pitches in some situations."
Having quality arms and experience is tantamount to a bullpen's success. But running a close second is having a starting staff that can pitch a lot of innings. Take James Shields' complete-game shutout of the Red Sox on Sunday, when the bullpen got to rest for an entire game.
"Makes all the difference in the world," Wheeler said. "The bullpen is only good if we get our rest. We can't be worn out. The game is dictated by how a starter throws."
Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey said that a team could have the best bullpen in the world, but if they have to pitch in situations where you don't want to use them, like covering the early innings of a starter who gets knocked around, trouble usually follows.
"I heard somebody say it best when they said your bullpen is at its best when you use it when you want to, not when you have to," Hickey said. "And we've been able, for the most part, to use it how we wanted to and that makes it a heckuva a lot better."
Percival said the more times a team can get six innings out of the starter, the better the bullpen is going to be "because you can mix and match."
"You can do matchups," Percival said. "But when you've got guys who are [having to cover innings for poor starting performances], you're burning too many guys down in the bullpen. A couple of outings like that and suddenly you're a couple of guys short in the bullpen."
Miller believes in the Rays' starting rotation.
"I know they are young and everybody puts a question mark on young guys," Miller said. "Like they don't know what they're going to do, they don't have the pedigree or resume. But I've seen these guys throw. The stuff they have and it's lights out, Katie bar the door. They're all going to be household names some day. I see it. All we've got to do is make them believe. And when that happens, watch out."
Percival offered a reality check tempered with optimism for the remainder of the season.
"We're going to hit our rough spots, every bullpen does," Percival said. "There are going to be rough spells. But I think ours are going to be minimal, and they're going to be shorter than for most teams, because of the personnel we have."
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