Firemen have been tossing gas on the fire

It started on the first opening day, in Japan, when A’s closer Huston Street gave up a ninth-inning homer to blow a 4-3 lead, then forked over two more runs to lose in the 10th. It happened on yet another opening day, the one in Washington, when Nationals reliever Jon Rauch gave up a top-of-the-ninth run (albeit unearned) to Atlanta, which was followed by a game-winning homer in the bottom half of the inning off Braves reliever Peter Moylan.

It was all over the place when most teams opened the season on March 31. Closers for the two best teams in the NL Central -- Milwaukee’s Eric Gagne and Chicago’s Kerry Wood -- allowed three ninth-inning runs each. Phillies closer Tom Gordon allowed five runs and got one out, ending the day with an ERA of 135.00. The Pirates and Braves required 13 innings from their bullpens, which gave up 17 combined runs.

It was reliever madness, and it didn’t stop after the various editions of opening day. Last week, bullpens everywhere made a mockery of late-inning situations. The blown save was the stat of the week. In the first 48 games this season, relief crews had the odd distinction of putting up higher earned-run averages than their starting pitcher counterparts, a fact that pretty much undermines the very concept of relief.

Starters’ ERA was 3.44. For the bullpens, it was 3.92. Relievers, on average, convert about two-thirds of their save opportunities. After 48 games, they had converted just 56.3 percent of their chances.

There will be 2,000-plus more games and about 1,700 more save opportunities, and the numbers figure to even out. But bullpens are the most volatile part of a team, and if the first week of the season taught us anything, it was that nothing is reliable when it comes to relief. The wise team is the one with bullpen options.

“Your bullpen on opening day is not going to be your bullpen in September,” Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro says. “There are going to be guys that surprise you, good and bad. You just have to make sure you have depth there, that you have choices.”

The World Series champion Red Sox started last year with Brendan Donnelly, J.C. Romero and Joel Pineiro on the front line of their middle-relief corps. All three were gone by August. Yankees savior Joba Chamberlain was in Tampa at the start of last season, toiling in Class A ball. Cubs relief ace Carlos Marmol was at Class AAA Iowa. The Phillies and Rockies made in-season closer changes. And these were playoff teams.

“That just goes with the territory,” says Brewers reliever David Riske. “It’s a tough job, and there are always adjustments that need to be made throughout the year.”

Riske could be a central figure in one such adjustment. Gagne bombed in Boston at the end of the 2007 season, struggled this spring, then blew the save for the Brewers in their opener. He’s a candidate to be adjusted right out of his role, in favor of Riske. Wood could be on a short leash, too, especially with the fireballing Marmol manning the middle innings. The Diamondbacks, who replaced closer Jose Valverde with middleman Brandon Lyon, might be concerned after Lyon gave up two singles and a home run while losing his second save opportunity. And, after a rough ending in ‘07, a four-run ninth in Trevor Hoffman’s second appearance this season probably wasn’t what the Padres had in mind for the 40-year-old closer.

Mariners Manager John McLaren is having an adjustment forced upon him. Closer J.J. Putz, who last season helped the Mariners to a 75-0 record when leading after eight innings, was placed on the disabled list with a rib injury after blowing a save. “We’re going to go out there and do it as a bullpen and mix and match,” McLaren says. “We’ll do the best we can.”

If you’re trying to prevent a week of bullpen flux from turning into a season of bullpen flux, that’s about all you can do.