Bullpen in better rhythm after sweeps of Braves and Mets

DENVER - The way Dusty Baker was able to manage his bullpen in the New York series is the ideal pattern he would like to utilize the entire season.

The first week he got into a jam because Shawn Kelley and Koda Glover had not pitched yet, because of the way two games went against the Marlins. He talked at the time about how he wanted to get them in a game.

Fast forward to the first weekend. The bullpen was taxed as the Phillies rallied from a 7-0 deficit to 7-6. The next night, Jeremy Guthrie couldn't get out of the first inning and the bullpen had to make up 8 1/3 innings. That two-game span had the bullpen in survival mode instead of Baker's preferred strategic roles.

"It's easier to put them in the roles where they belong or where we want them to be when you don't have to overuse them," Baker said Monday in Denver. "And when you don't have to, like, go on who's the freshest versus the matchups mean something. You know you got a pretty good chance of being successful, you try to put them in a position where they can succeed. Sometimes you don't have that luxury.

"You usually (only) have the luxury of who's the freshest. It all starts with starting pitching. If your starting pitching is good, then everything seems to fall into line because you can mix and match for a couple of innings, but it gets tough after any more than that."

Glover picked up two saves in a row in New York. In his last five games, he has a 0.00 ERA in 3 2/3 innings with five strikeouts.

"All the guys, they expect me to do my job and that's what I was doing," Glover said. "I was going out there to put up a zero, and that's what I did."

But does the 24-year-old lean on anyone for advice? Maybe Kelley? He gave an interesting answer as to why the pair might not be the best match to compare notes.

"I think me and Shawn are too much alike for him to even give me much advice, but when I ask him things he tells me and lets me know," Glover said. "But for the most part we kind of do our own thing and go about it in our own way, and I think that works out for us best."

But pitchers do have time to work together to improve each other's games. Glover says he can always take a little bit of knowledge from each pitcher he talks to and implement it in his own routine.

"There's always somebody," Glover said. "Max Scherzer was my catch partner in spring training. I learned a lot from him. Joe Blanton has been around the block. There's something you can get from everybody. That's what you try to do as young guys, try to learn this and that and what they do best and mold it into your own way."

And then there's the closer role. Baker deemed Kelley the closer after Blake Treinen struggled in the role early in the season. In the last four games, Kelley saved the first two and Glover finished off the last two games of the sweep of the Mets. Kelley had gone through a string of three saves in four games before Saturday and Sunday.

"It's definitely a different animal," Glover said of pitching in the ninth. "When you are closing down a game, guys are more locked in as far as the hitters. It's a different approach on both ends as far as the pitcher and hitter. Walks become crucial. There's a lot more that plays in in the ninth inning. You have to go about it a different way. You're still trying to put up zeroes. Regardless, seventh, eighth or ninth you got to do your job."