'Minor adjustment' brings immediate Bednar rebound

PHILADELPHIA -- It's been a long three days for David Bednar. 

After an erratic showing led to his third blown save of the season in Tuesday's loss to the Tigers, the All-Star closer knew it was time to get back to the drawing board with Oscar Marin and Justin Meccage in an attempt to regain the elite command he's shown throughout his career with the Pirates. 

"Just getting together with Oscar, Mecc and the rest of the coaching staff, just figuring out what was going wrong, how to get back on that track and be able to make that quick adjustment," Bednar said. "Just a minor adjustment." 

Bednar put in the work behind the scenes and was chomping at the bit for his next opportunity to take the mound. He got his chance and took full advantage of it Friday night, earning a bit of redemption by picking up his second save of the season in a 5-2 victory over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. 

"When I'm able to compete in the zone, I'll be able to have success," Bednar said. "I got away from that and was a little bit erratic. Today I was able to tighten it back up, get back in the zone and compete against guys. It went well today."

Bednar showed a massive improvement compared to his last outing when he allowed four runs on three hits, a walk and two hit batters against Detroit. This time around, he threw 11 of 16 pitches for strikes and retired Philadelphia's 7-8-9 hitters in order to preserve the win. 

"Our pitching group did a good job. They made a little bit of an adjustment there, he came back and was in the zone," Derek Shelton said. "This guy is an elite closer. We've seen that over the last couple of years, but it was nice to get him back out there." 

Bednar asserted his dominance right out of the gate, pumping three straight 97 mph fastballs past Nick Castellanos. The first one was a called strike on the outer edge. Castellanos swung through the last two, including a third strike that was up and out of the zone. 

"It was big time," Bednar said. "I think when I'm executing heaters, that's when I'm successful. To start the inning off like that, that was big time."

Bednar went to his fastball 11 times while sprinkling in a few curveballs and an occasional splitter. He got Bryson Stott to fly out to left field on a 98 mph fastball up and out of the zone before going to his curveball to force a flyout off the bat of Whit Merrifield to end the game. 

"I think we saw it right off the bat. He came in and threw three strikes right away," Shelton said. "He commanded the fastball which was the thing that kinda plagued him in his last couple appearances." 

Bednar responding in a positive way after blowing three saves in four opportunities was an encouraging and sweet sight for others in the clubhouse, too, including Bryan Reynolds. 

"It was what I expected," Reynolds said. "I never doubted him. He was just doing Bednar things tonight." 

Count Shelton as another who refused to doubt Bednar. 

"He's going to continue to work on things but I think we've seen this sample size over the last two years," Shelton said. "This guy led the National League in saves last year. I understand when you have an outing or two where you're not as sharp, but he was sharp today which was important for us." 

Bednar was one of five pitchers used out of the bullpen after Bailey Falter tossed five strong innings against his former team. He allowed one run on four hits with three strikeouts and didn't walk a batter. The lone run scored on an RBI infield single by Stott in the fifth. 

"He did a nice job," Shelton said of Falter, who was dealt at last year's trade deadline after spending parts of three seasons with the Phillies. "That's a tough lineup to navigate through, and then coming back to where you played before, there's always some emotions there. But Bailey did exactly what we needed him to do. Five strong innings." 

The run support came in unorthodox fashion throughout the night. The game's first run scored on a bases-loaded walk to Henry Davis in the second before Connor Joe delivered with a fourth-inning RBI single on a ball that got past Trea Turner, who slipped on the outfield grass:

Davis scored on a passed ball in the seventh that hit off the wrist of J.T. Realmuto and joined Reynolds with run-scoring hits in the eighth. Davis, Reynolds, Joe and Jared Triolo each had two hits and combined to account for eight of the Pirates' nine on the night. 

"We continue to add on. We scored in some very strange ways today," Shelton said. "We didn't hit the ball hard and scored. We scored on the passed ball. But we continued to add on. Bryan's hit there to answer back was really important for us. I just thought we continued with Sanchez -- with the exception of one inning -- we continued to make starters work." 

Phillies starter Christopher Sanchez went six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts. 

The battle of the bullpens, however, was won by the visitors. 

Yunior Marte and Ricardo Pinto combined to allow three runs in three innings, while Jose Hernandez, Luis Ortiz, Josh Fleming and Aroldis Chapman came together to surrender just one run on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Their collective performance allowed the team to maintain its lead and set the stage for Bednar to bounce back in a big way. 

"Obviously, anytime I'm out there with a lead, I want to shut the door," Bednar said. "The guys battled all day. It was a great team win today. I just wanted to put an exclamation point on it."