TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays ran their first bullpen game of the season April 4 at the Chicago White Sox, when they didn’t have someone to backfill after Cody Ponce blew out his right knee, and their improvisation hasn’t stopped since. Thirty-five different pitchers have logged innings already, not including mop-up duty outings by position players Myles Straw and Tyler Heineman, with 14 of them starting a game, including eight by leverage arm Braydon Fisher.

On Wednesday, when the relievers once again step up to cover an absence, this one created by Shane Bieber’s sudden teres major injury, "bullpen day" will move into fourth on the Blue Jays in starts at 16, one more than Patrick Corbin. Only ace Dylan Cease, at a team-leading 24, the traded Kevin Gausman at 23, and recovering from knee surgery Trey Yesavage, at 18, have started more often, as making things up on the go has become the club norm this year.

“It’s the reality of what we've been doing the whole season,” said Max Scherzer, an ever more vital part of the rotation who continued a strong return from the injured list with five innings of two-run ball in Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals. “We've had everybody getting hurt left and right and it's always been next man up. So, really kind of status quo.”

Added manager John Schneider: “Mentally they're pretty well conditioned in it. The physical part is where it can kind of catch up with guys that have been here for the whole year and dealing with it. Guys like Flu (Mason Fluharty, who’s made four starts in his major-league high 70 games) and Fish and Louis (Varland, the all-star closer with 66.1 innings in 60 outings). But........

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