August was a whole new ballgame for relief pitching.
First, Torey Lovullo talked about a problem:
“We’ve got the find a way to get those outs late in the game, leverage or no leverage, it doesn’t matter. When you come out of the bullpen you need to get outs. And if you’re not we’ve got to make some sort of adjustment.” — Torey Lovullo 5 August, earlier in the day.
How I heard/interpreted his comment was that when a closing pitcher enters a game (in a save situation OR a non-save situation), he needs to pitch well.