ST. LOUIS -- Derek Shelton went over to David Bednar and asked where he was at after finishing the bottom of the eighth.
"His answer was pretty convincing," Shelton said.
"Something along the lines of, ‘I’ll take the ball.’ I guess that would be the PG version," Bednar said. "However you wanna read between the lines. That was the gist of it."
After already recording five outs, the Pirates closer went back out for the ninth and finished off the Cardinals in Busch Stadium Wednesday, snapping a nine-game losing streak and salvaging the final game of the eight-game road trip with a 6-4 win.
That road trip was taxing to those players because they felt they were close in just about every game they played. Seven of those nine losses were by two runs, and they held the lead in another into the bottom of the seventh. With the exception of being one pitch away from being no-hit by Miles Mikolas Tuesday night, they thought they were close.
"It is not just another win," Shelton said. "This is a win we needed."
They got it, in large part, because of Bednar. With a pair of runners on in the seventh, Shelton turned to Bednar with one out in the inning. Not exactly with the intention of finishing out the game, but because the Pirates needed to get outs right there.
Bednar didn't give the ball back. That included getting Paul Goldschmidt, who had homered every game this series and is arguably the hottest hitter in baseball, to ground into a double-play in the ninth when he represented the tying run:
"If there’s one thing I’ve kind of learned, it’s just to take it one out at a time, as cliche as that is," Bednar said. "Once you start looking ahead, you lose what’s right in front of you. I was just trying to get one out at a time and try and be efficient and have the opportunity to finish the game."
He did finish it, to the surprise of everyone besides his teammates.
"He’s got that dawg in him," Wil Crowe was telling me about Bednar. "He was going to give us what he has. He’s incredible.”
"I think he’s the best closer in the NL," Bryan Reynolds said. "I think he’s the best in baseball. Every time he’s out there, I have all the confidence in the world in him. He’s just a beast."
Reynolds was the other half of the equation. After losing a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth, Reynolds came up with Tucupita Marcano on first and two outs.
There, he gave the Pirates the lead for good:
After a slow start to the season, Reynolds has caught fire in June, hitting .404 with four home runs, 11 runs and nine RBIs.
"I was happy with the road trip, in the box compared to how it has been," Reynolds said about his performance of late. "Just trying to swing at good pitches and be direct, be on time. Just keep moving forward."
Seeing an early-season slump continue into mid-May, Reynolds' performance drew some concern from the baseball world, but not in the clubhouse.
“He’s an All-Star for a reason," Crowe said. "He got paid for a reason. He comes in and works every day. Straps it on, plays. He cares... When you put in the work that he does behind the scenes and give a s---, the results come."
And when the team needed him, he and Bednar rose to the occasion. For a young team looking for a spark, getting them from their 2021 All-Star and like 2022 All-Star means even more.
Reynolds downplayed that angle a bit.
"Any way to get a win after a streak like that we were on is fine," he said. "It’s nice to step up when your team needs you."
Shelton, on the other hand, gave two of his team leaders the recognition they deserved.
"These two guys are important," Shelton said. "They’re part of our core moving forward... Those are two guys that we need to step up, and [they] really did tonight."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• All the Pirates could do was try to survive the fifth inning and hope it didn't cost them the game.
Entering with a 4-1 lead, Canaan Smith-Njigba started by misplaying a fly ball at the wall, not backtracking enough and letting it drop in for a Harrison Bader extra-base hit. After Roasny Contreras lost Tommy Edman and Nolan Arenado on 3-2 counts, with a Brendan Donovan run-scoring double mixed in.
Crowe was brought in with one out in the fifth and runners at the corners, and appeared to get a big out when he snared a soft Nolan Gorman comebacker, but his throw to third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes was off target, letting Donovan reach the bag safely again.
"Looking back on it, it’s probably something that he turns around and throws the ball to second," Shelton said. "That’s a tough play for a relief pitcher because he gets the ball chopped off the mound and he sees the runner in his peripheral, and then all of a sudden, you start to think, ‘Okay, I’m going to get an out here.’ And then after that, he’s just got to set his feet because Key was in the right spot. He just didn’t make a really good throw."
Tyler O'Neill followed with a softly hit ground ball and legged out the fielder's choice to tie the game.
Crowe would finish the inning without any more damage and was the last Pirates pitcher before Bednar finished the game.
• It was a rough game for Smith-Njigba in general. In the top of the sixth, he reached on a fielder's choice when the relay was wild, and he made a motion towards second base. Because he did that, he had to reach a bag safely again before being tagged. He didn't make much of an effort to get back to first, and the Cardinals completed the double-play:
"Like we’ve talked about, we’re going to make young mistakes," Shelton said. "We have to have teaching moments off those moments."
• Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty returned back from the injured list and was limited to just 60 pitches. The Pirates made sure he wasn't efficient and made him hit that limit after three, scoring four runs in the process.
"I think it started with Tuc [Marcano]," Shelton said. "Right off the bat, he had a nine or 10 pitch at-bat. He threw everything up there and he continued to foul pitches off. I thought we did a nice job with him. This is a guy with pretty elite stuff. He wasn’t at his sharpest and we were able to run the pitch count up, get into their bullpen and then did a nice job adding on with Bryan at the end."
• Injury update: Ben Gamel should start a rehab assignment in the next 10 days, Jake Marisnick should start his within a week and Josh VanMeter should start his rehab assignment next week.
Blake Cederlind is throwing again from 105-120 feet, as is Dillon Peters. They should both begin throwing off of a slope soon.
• Factoid of the game: The last Pirate pitcher to record a save of at least eight outs in a game decided by two runs or fewer was Jason Christiansen on July 22, 1998.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 10-day injured list: OF Ben Gamel (hamstring), RHP Heath Hembree (calf), OF Jake Marisnick (thumb), 1B Yoshi Tsutsugo (lumbar muscle strain), Josh VanMeter (finger)
• 60-day injured list: Kevin Newman (groin), OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery), Roberto Pérez (hamstring, out for season)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card for game two:
1. Tucupita Marcano, 2B
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
5. Cal Mitchell, RF
6. Michael Chavis, 1B
7. Canaan Smith-Njigba, LF
8. Tyler Heineman, C
9. Hoy Park, SS
And for Oliver Marmol's Cardinals:
1. Tommy Edman, SS
2. Brenan Donovan, 1B
3. Paul Goldschmidt, DH
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Nolan Gorman, 2B
6. Tyler O'Neill, LF
7. Dylan Carlson, RF
8. Yadier Molina, C
9. Harrison Bader, CF
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates are off Thursday to travel back home to Pittsburgh. Zach Thompson (3-4, 4.50) will pitch game one against the Giants, with first pitch coming at 7:05 p.m. Chris Halicke and DK will have you covered.
THE CONTENT
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