ST. LOUIS -- When glancing at Hunter Stratton's game logs, one may only notice the performances that have inflated his numbers coming out of the Pirates' bullpen. There have been three specific appearances where he's allowed four or more runs in an inning or less and, more recently, he's had five showings in which he surrendered at least one earned or unearned run.
"With those three outings, I just chalk it up to baseball and move forward," Stratton told me prior to Tuesday's series opener against the Cardinals. "We learn from them, chalk it up to maybe tipping something and we take care of it."
But while Stratton -- like plenty of other Pirates relievers -- has experienced his share of down games, he's been efficient and consistent more often than not. He's struck out 29 batters and walked five in 31 1/3 innings, and take away his three sluggish performances in which he allowed a combined 13 runs and he's only given up four runs (two earned) in his other 25 appearances.
"I think you have to look at the bulk of it. Knock on wood, but it took David (Bednar) forever and it's still taken him time to get (the ERA) down after a couple bad outings early," Derek Shelton said. "Bullpen ERA is the last thing to look at. Look at the body of work. You can have a really bad outing and it can blow up your numbers in a way that, at the end of the year, you look back and say, 'Wait, what happened? This guy had a good year.'"
In the eyes of Shelton, Stratton's execution of all three of his pitches -- cutter, four-seam fastball and slider -- is key to whether he's able to effectively provide quality innings on a day-to-day basis.
“I think when we’ve seen him be off, one or two of the pitches has not been working and it’s stayed in the middle of the plate," Shelton said. "He’s made a couple pitches that have stayed in the middle of the plate that have cost him multiple runs and I think that’s why those numbers get elevated.”
In the grand scheme of things, Stratton takes pride in being a "good link in the chain" and providing more quality innings than ones that have gotten out of hand. He knows the latter are inevitable, but he's determined every single time out to do his job effectively and hand the ball off to the next guy in line.
"I'm just throwing every pitch like it's going to be my last one," Stratton said. "I heard a good quote from (Adam) Wainwright, and when Wainwright talks I listen. He said he was sitting in a boat and he said, 'I'm going to make a promise to me and God that I'm going to throw every pitch like it's the last pitch of the World Series.' I was like, 'That's all I had to hear,' I'm going to take that one, put it in the back pocket and that's how I'm going to pitch."
