"Any pitching staff is bookended by the No. 1 pitcher and the closer," Duquette said. "To sustain a competitive team, you need to have your good closer on the end and your ace pitcher. We had the unfortunate set of events the first half of the season where we haven't gotten a lot from our first two starting pitchers and our closer wasn't available to us. We also have a veteran starter in [Ubaldo] Jimenez who is a streaky pitcher and he hasn't gone on a hot streak yet. Our expectations are that they will perform better in the second half of the season."