20 August 2023
The Saints bullpen, solid all season, has been particularly stingy of late, leading Triple-A baseball with an earned-run average of 2.78 in the month of August.
The group has been led by right-hander Austin Schulfer, who has made five appearances this month, allowing one run in seven innings for an earned-run average of 1.29. The 27-year-old Schulfer has put himself in position to be a late-season addition to the Twins.
“When he’s at his best he’s attacking the zone early, getting early strikes and putting guys away without giving them much of a chance to get back into counts,” said Saints pitching coach Pete Larson prior to the Saints’ 5-4 loss to Indianapolis on Saturday at CHS Field.
“Sometimes when he does have a little bit of a struggle it hasn’t really been falling behind, it’s not putting hitters away.”
There was nothing “little” about the struggles Schulfer went through midway through the season.
Through the first 66 games, Schulfer was a force out of the bullpen, and fulfilling his dream of reaching the major leagues seemed only a matter of time. Then, over the last two weeks of June, he had a hard time getting anybody out.
During a four-game stretch from June 17 to June 29, Schulfer gave up 11 runs in five innings — that after allowing one run in his previous five appearances in June, and a total of six runs the first two months of the season.
“It was one of those buildups where I made some good pitches and just got ‘baseballed’ a little bit,” Schulfer said. “I feel like guys start hitting in the middle of June and I just kind of ran into two bad weeks.
“I feel like I didn’t change much — maybe I was getting behind guys a little more. I talked to the staff about getting back ahead of guys and kind of dominating that.”
Frustrated by his sudden lack of success, Schulfer soon found himself pressing, especially considering he appeared to be on the cusp of getting called up by the Twins. It only added to his troubles.
On July 6, Schulfer was placed on the development list, which removed him from the active roster but allowed him to continue training with the team. It was a drastic turn of events for someone who had been among the Saints’ most reliable pitchers.
“It’s always easy to look at those kinds of things as a ‘woe is me’ kind of moment,” Schulfer said. “But I think I will be able to look at it — hopefully after 10 years in the big leagues — (as something) that really shaped my career.”
Schulfer returned to the active roster after 12 days and has benefitted from what Larson referred to as a reset.
Schulfer acknowledges that his downturn could be traced in part to not staying focused on the things that led to his success. That point was driven across by Saints manager Toby Gardenhire when he informed Schulfer he would be going on the development list.
“He said some things to me that were probably hard for him to say,” Schulfer said. “But they sparked something that made me say, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ If I want to be successful I have to be doing these things.
“Instead of letting it affect the rest of my season I took it as a reflection moment, as in I do need to get better, and that’s why people are telling me that. When I wasn’t performing the way I was capable of some red flags came up.
“Instead of looking at it as a punishment it was more of a growth opportunity, and understanding that they were doing me a favor.”
Briefly
Simeon Woods Richardson made his first start in 11 days after dealing with health issues that caused him to lose 10 pounds. He sailed through the first 2 2/3 innings before allowing a triple and a home run. He pitched five innings, allowing the two runs on four hits while striking out six. … Saints first baseman Yunior Severino homered over the batter’s eye in center field. Measured at 461 feet, it was only the fifth ball to be hit over the batter’s eye at CHS Field and the first by a Triple-A player.
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