ST. LOUIS -- David Bednar gave out a good hearted laugh when the subject was broached. Almost like he had anticipated this question.
Hard to blame if he did, given the shakeup the Pirates’ bullpen has undergone in the past month. Gone are closer Ricahrd Rodríguez, his heir apparent coming into the year, Kyle Crick, Clay Holmes -- one of Derek Shelton’s go-to relievers the first four months of the season -- and lefty Austin Davis.
So there’s a ninth inning job that is seemingly up for grabs and a rookie who has performed his way to a leverage role, if not the leverage role, in the bullpen. Bednar played it off though.
“I’m locked in so whenever the phone rings, I’ll be ready,” Bednar was telling me before Friday’s game.
On Saturday night in Busch Stadium, that call came in the ninth inning, and he was ready, mowing down the heart of the Cardinals’ order to close out a 5-4 Pirates win.
Put that baseball on the mantle. That’s career save No. 1.
“I was just trying to treat it like every other outing,” Bednar said after the game when asked if it felt any different to go out there for the ninth. “Just go out there and let it rip and pitch with conviction.”
Normally, Bednar would be in line for more, and consistent, save opportunities. There will probably be more to come, but the Pirates aren’t naming him the closer, because there is no closer right now.
“I think the closer title gets overused a little bit,” Shelton said. “When you look at teams that have one guy who’s done it for a long time and is really good at it, yeah, it comes into play. Then I think you also look at a lot of organizations that value the leverage of the situation and kind of mix and match. That’s kind of what we’ve done with David since we traded Richie. I think that is as valuable as anything because sometimes the highest leverage situation in a game is not the ninth inning.”
It’s worth noting Shelton said something similar at the start of spring training, and while he didn’t name Rodriguez the closer to start the year, he quickly cemented his role in the bullpen.
Such a situation happened Friday, when Shelton turned to Bednar with two on and two outs in the seventh inning. With the tying run at the plate, Bednar got a fly ball to right and then came out again to post another zero in the eighth. Chris Stratton tossed a clean ninth in what turned out to be a non-save situation.
Actually, Bednar’s save was the first for a Pirate pitcher since Rodríguez on July 16.
As this season has progressed, it’s sometimes hard to remember that coming into the year, Bednar wasn’t expected to be in a late-inning role. He was a rookie reliever who had to earn his way onto the opening day roster. Once he did that, he continued to rise up the ranks in the bullpen.
On the year, Bednar has pitched to a 2.49 ERA while striking out 31% of his batters faced over his 50 ⅔ innings, with the peripherals and a lethal fastball-curveball-splitter mix to match.
One of the main talking points for Shelton this year is giving players opportunities they wouldn’t normally have. When asked this week about which player or players have made the most of those opportunities, the first person that came to his mind was Bednar.
On Saturday, after allowing a ground ball single on the first pitch, Bednar put down Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Tyler O’Neill in order, challenging each hitter by only throwing one ball the entire inning.
“I think tonight is just a testament for how well he has pitched for us this year," Shelton said.
There’s that conviction Bednar talked about Saturday night.
“When you have conviction, things are going to shake out better more times than not,” he said.
Bednar says it’s not just him who has that mindset. It was something that rubbed off on the group from Rodríguez and Crick. If the bullpen and those leverage roles are going to be earned, they need to stay ready.
“The mindset we have back there is to be ready to pitch everyday,” Bednar said. “It’s gonna carry over.”
GETTY
Ke'Bryan Hayes takes a swing against the Cardinals Saturday.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Dillon Peters' encore performance from his encouraging first start went well, going five innings of one run, three hit ball. Like his first start last Sunday, he relied primarily on his fastball and changeup and filled the strike zone.
"He throws strikes, he pitches to contact and he executes pitches, and we got exactly what we needed out of him," Shelton said.
"I was getting ahead early," Peters said. "When you get ahead, you’re going to get some bad swings and some foul pitches, which will jack that strike percentage up."
• After being shut down by Cardinals starter J.A. Happ the first two times they saw him this year, Kevin Newman and Yoshi Tsutsugo powered the Pirates' offense early with a pair of solo home runs.
Down 3-2 in the seventh, Ke'Bryan Hayes came through with a two-out, two-run single to right before coming home on a Tsutsugo base hit two batters later.
Since joining the Pirates Monday, Tsutusgo has really tapped into the power he showed in Japan's Nippon League, recording two doubles, two homers and a base hit in his 10 at-bats with the Pirates. That comes after recording just four extra-base hits, all doubles, in his first stints with the Rays and Dodgers this year.
"He continues to have good, big at-bats. Consistent at-bats," Shelton said. "It's good to see. When you add a guy to your club and he continues to play well, or starts to play well, right from the get-go, it's nice."
• The Chad Kuhl bullpen experiment nearly went off the rails early, allowing three straight hits to start the bottom of the seventh, trying to protect a two run lead.
His stuff progressively improved as the inning went on, and while he did allow one run on a sacrifice fly, he got out of the jam with the Pirates still out in front. He finished off Yadier Molina with a high fastball swinging, and then got Lars Nootbaar to chase spin and end the inning.
"He comes in and he's 93, he's 93. Then all of a sudden he throws 10, 11 pitches and we see 96, we see 97," Shelton said. "He goes through the heart of their order and executes pitches. It's just gonna be a learning experience for him in terms of what he needs to do to get ready and how he gets ready, and that's something we expected. But the fact that he came in, executed pitches and did not speed up on him in his first time out of the bullpen was definitely a positive sign."
Stratton pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
• That's five wins for the Pirates in their last six at Busch Stadium, with the two this series coming when the Cardinals were supposed to be gearing up for a run at a playoff spot. Instead, the Pirates are playing spoilers.
"It’s awesome any time you can get [two wins], especially two games at someone’s home turf," Hayes said. "Regardless of our record, we’re still going out there every day trying to play as hard as we can and win games. Shelty, like he was telling us, there’s a lot of room for opportunities for a lot of guys, so don’t take any of it for granted."
THE ESSENTIALS
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Ben Gamel, LF
2. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Yoshi Tsutsugo, 1B
5. Jacob Stallings, C
6. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
7. Gregory Polanco, RF
8. Kevin Newman, SS
9. Dillon Peters, LHP
And for Mike Schildt's Cardinals:
1. Tommy Edman, 2B
2. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
3. Nolan Arenado, 3B
4. Tyler O'Neill, LF
5. Yadier Molina, C
6. Lars Nootbaar, RF
7. Edmundo Sosa, SS
8. Harrison Bader, CF
9. J.A. Happ, LHP
THE SCHEDULE
Is the ninth time the charm? The Pirates will go for that elusive first sweep Sunday. Steven Brault (0-1, 1.84) will face Adam Wainwright (11-7, 3.26) in the Pirates' final game from Busch Stadium this stadium. I'll be there for first pitch at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
IN THE SYSTEM
THE CONTENT
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