Otto: In a packed bullpen, Cubs relievers have to stay ready

Kyle Hendricks went five innings for the Cubs on Friday night, leaving four innings for the bullpen to slam the door on the Miami Marlins.

It was a nice night for the Cubs' bullpen. Trevor Cahill, Travis Wood and Hector Rondon combined to give up 0 runs, 1 hit and 1 walk. At certain points in the season, work for relievers can be feast or famine.

The feast for relievers like closer Hector Rondon is when the Cubs consistently build up a lead through seven or eight innings. Unless there are four or five save situations in a row, where he might need a day off, Rondon is on the mound for those tight games. The challenge for manager Joe Maddon is ensuring Rondon gets regular work to maintain a good rhythm, even if the Cubs are not in a stretch of tight games.

There are those three or four relievers at the top of any bullpen's pecking order that are in all the close games. Or at the very least, are in the game when the team has any kind of lead late.

The internal competition in a bullpen is to become one of those go-to relievers. Innings can be scarce when there are eight relievers, which the Cubs are presently carrying. It doesn't make it any easier when Cubs' starters consistently go deep into ballgames, leaving only two or three innings a night for the bullpen.

The famine usually occurs for a reliever when they are toward the bottom of the pecking order. I thought I had a chance one time to get into a game with the Oakland A's. We were winning by 7 runs. Art Kusnyer, the bullpen coach at the time for the A's, told me that the game was probably still too close.

Physically, it's all about finding a way to stay sharp with your pitches even if appearances are rare. Mentally, it's enduring a stretch when coming off a bad outing. Those bad outings sometimes last a grand total of 5 minutes, and relievers have to grind through it until next time, whenever that might be.

Justin Grimm had one of those bad outings the other day against the Cardinals. Grimm came into the game in the sixth inning with a 2-0 Cardinal lead. First hitter he faced, on the first pitch, hit a bullet for a double. With the second batter, first pitch was wild and the runner moved to third. Next pitch, ground ball to third, with the Cubs unable to get the out at home. Third batter, first pitch base-hit. After just 4 pitches, they had men on first and second and 1 run in.

And after about 5 minutes and 12 total pitches thrown, 4 runs were charged to Justin. In baseball parlance, that would be a "Hang with 'em."

I can't speak for Justin, but in an outing like that, those 12 pitches have a tendency to constantly swirl around your head until the next appearance. Justin was lights-out last year with 67 strikeouts in 49 innings pitched, but right now he has to endure some famine until he moves back up the bullpen pecking order.

Regardless of where a Cubs reliever might be in the pecking order, it is all about being ready when that bullpen phone rings and your number is called.

• Dave Otto, a standout athlete at Elk Grove High School, pitched from 1987-1994 for four MLB teams, including the Cubs. A former baseball analyst for WGN Radio, FoxSportsNet and Comcast SportsNet Chicago, Otto also is a member of the University of Missouri Hall of Fame.