“That kind of comes naturally,” he said. “I’m pretty laid back, especially in tough situations. There’s not a lot that really gets to me. I’m pretty optimistic and I look toward the positive things of certain situations. Whether it’s completely bad or not, I try to find some positives with it and work off that.”

Rosenthal has missed on just 14 of 110 save opportunities in his career. On those rare occasions when he does misfire, he said, “It doesn’t really stick with me but I don’t necessarily forget it. I always look forward to the next opportunity I’m going to have to play. In the moments when it seems like everything’s going great and you can’t do anything wrong, I like to remember the times I’ve failed. It kind of keeps me humble.

“And when things are going really bad, I try to remember the times where things were going great and I try to keep a balance.”

Isringhausen has been there before, of course, and he said the ability for a closer to rid oneself of a failure does take some practice. “When you blow a save, you feel like you let all of your teammates down,” Isringhausen said.

Rather than X’s and O’s of pitching, Isringhausen and Rosenthal, when they meet up during the spring, talk more about the mental side of the game and about family and how those two might interact.