This being the height of Game of Thrones mania, maybe it's best to explain Shawn Kelley, most valuable member of the Rangers' bullpen, in the language befitting the Seven Kingdoms: He's happy to be a faceless man.

Kelley, currently the interim closer, doesn't need things like titles or roles at this point.

Just get him a handful of warmup pitches and point him in the direction of the mound, and he's good to go.

"I'm a believer in having roles," Kelley said. "I just don't need one."

The Rangers have taken him at his word. The 35-year-old, who weighed retiring before signing a one-year deal in late January, has pitched in every inning from the fifth through the 10th.

Just consider these events in the last two weeks:

When starter Adrian Sampson tired in the fifth inning while making his third trip through the lineup against Houston on April 20, Kelley entered with two runners on base to protect the lead. He was awarded the win.

The next day, when Jose Leclerc couldn't get the final out in a painful ninth inning, Kelley came on to preserve a one-run lead.

He pitched the 10th of a scoreless tie against Toronto on Friday to extend the game, which the Blue Jays eventually won in 12.

The next day, he worked an eight-pitch ninth inning to protect a lead, earn his second save and help snap the Rangers' four-game losing streak.

For the season, Kelley has allowed just 10 base runners -- only one via a walk -- in 14 innings for a 0.71 WHIP. It is the sixth best among relievers in the majors this season. He's also not allowed any of the nine runners he has inherited to score. It is the second-highest number of inherited runners for any pitcher who has not allowed one to score behind Baltimore's Paul Fry (13).

"The versatility he provides us gives us so many options," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. "To have a guy you can use anywhere just does so much for you. Most guys want a role. He wants to win. In a crisis, you see who really doesn't care, who is really selfless."

Said Kelley: "I've never really been a big role guy. I think it's important to have some consistency when the phone rings. That's important for peace and clarity for some guys. But I can get ready whenever, and I don't need many pitches."

Relievers like roles because they like routines. Tell a guy he's got the seventh or eighth inning and he will start to loosen up at a specific time in the game and so on. A big part of that routine is knowing how many pitches a guy needs once he starts to throw. Younger pitchers need more for command. A lot of older pitchers need more time to simply get loose.

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Kelley, in his 11th season, actually needs less. After elbow surgery, bone chips and ulnar nerve irritation, Kelley said he knows he has only a certain number of pitches left in the arm. No use in wasting throws in the bullpen when he can use four or five pitches to get loose and the other eight he gets once he gets to the mound.

"When I learned to do that, I was able to save a lot of bullets in my arm," he said.

He learned it six years ago during a run with the New York Yankees in which the team went through 21 relievers in a season. It was the most in Yankees history until the next year when they went through 25. A year with that kind of turnover will make a pitcher reconsider his place in the pitching world.

After talking with teammates Boone Logan and Carrollton's Preston Claiborne, Kelley invested in a set of T-shirts that were designed to reinforce the collective nature of the bullpen rather than individual roles.

The T-shirts read "Relievers are people too."

Everywhere he's gone since, he's invested in a similar set of T-shirts for his bullpen mates in that team's colors. The Rangers are the fourth group to get that message.

"You do kind of have to be egoless out there," Kelley said. "Well, the ego is collective, not individual."

In other words, you have to be willing to be a little, well, faceless.

Twitter: @EvanPGrant

WHIP, it good!

Shawn Kelley ranks sixth in the AL for relievers in walks and hits allowed per inning pitched (WHIP). A look at the top WHIP rates among AL relievers:

Source: STATS, LLC