After hanging tough through their early workloads, the over-use finally caught up with the crucial members of the bullpen this week.

Specifically, we've found our first two shared blown saves, which includes outings where a reliever blows a lead or a tie after another reliever (or relievers) have surrendered runs. This occurred in both Cardinals games, where Turnbow blew the tie in the 9th on Monday after Shouse and Mota blew the tie in the 8th, and Gagne blew the lead in the 9th on Tuesday after Shouse and Riske allowed four runs in the seventh. Turnbow and Gagne alone cannot be blamed for their fortunes in these ballgames, and given the number of runs allowed by the other relievers in these games, we ought to hold several relievers accountable.

Thus, our shared blown save stat jumps from zero to two in the span of two days.

Due to a bunch of blown leads and blown ties, our adjusted leads converted % falls from 83% to 78%, which is still a respectable number given the number of tight appearances the bullpen has seen thus far:

The bullpen has seen 41 adjusted lead opportunities in 22 games, including 14 tie game appearancess and 27 appearances with a lead of 3-or-fewer runs. That breaks down into 14 appearances in tie games, 14 appearances in SVO, and 13 appearances in hold situations. 

Adjusted leads converted (series 7/11, 64%; season 32/41, 78%)

Riske 1/2 (hold; one tie opportunity)

Torres 1/1 (hold)

Stetter 1/1 (hold)

Mota 1/1 (tie)

McClung 1/1 (tie)

Shouse 1/2 (one hold; one tie opportunity)

Turnbow 1/2 (one SVO; one tie opportunity)

Gagne 0/1 (SVO)

Shared blown saves: 2 (Gagne, Shouse, Riske; Turnbow, Shouse, Mota)

Adjusted reliever WHIP (season) (R+IS)/(BB+H+IR):

Shouse: 27% (4+3)/(3+7+16)

Riske: 37% (9+1)/(8+13+6)

Torres: 22%  (3+3)/(7+13+7)

McClung: 46% (5+1)/(4+8+1)

Gagne: 56% (8+1)/(4+10+2)

Series: 11/5 (Mota 2/1, Shouse 4/3, Torres 3/1, Riske 1/0, Stetter 1/0)

Scoreless IP (season):

Torres: 12.0

Mota: 10.3

Riske: 7.0

McClung: 5.7

Shouse: 5.3

Stetter: 5.0

Gagne: 4.7

Turnbow: 3.0

The offense and the starting pitchers desperately need to give the bullpen a few games off. Can't we have a stretch of 20 games where there are only 10 or 15 appearances needed in ties or with leads of 3-or-fewer runs?

Unrealistic, I know, but our pen needs it.