Bednar's reliable tools allow him to stay sharp when he's needed most

When "Renegade" by Styx begins blaring from the PA system and David Bednar makes his way to the mound prior to the start of the ninth inning at PNC Park, Mitch Keller constantly finds himself enthralled by the atmosphere. 

"It’s something special. You have all the lights, the music, the crowd gets into it and then Bednar himself is just impressive," Keller said. "It’s a lot of fun watching him throw that thing, especially when he’s feeling good, he’s practically unhittable. I love when he comes in the game, it means good things are happening." 

Bednar's signature entrance seems to captivate those who get to experience it first-hand. As Keller alluded to, it usually means Bednar is being entrusted to embark on a save situation. But in some scenarios, that's not the case. It sure looked like he might enter Monday night's series opener against the Cardinals without an opportunity to preserve a win for Keller and the Pirates. He began warming up when the teams were knotted up at 1-1 and it wasn't until Nick Gonzales delivered with a go-ahead single in the bottom of the eighth that Bednar turned his focus from simply keeping the game tied to embracing his role as a top-tier closer. 

Bednar did just that and, in the process, looked sharp against four quality hitters, throwing 11 of his 13 pitches for strikes and tossing a scoreless ninth inning to secure his 18th save of the season in the Pirates' 2-1 win over the visiting Cardinals. 

"He was on top of it," said Keller, who allowed one run through seven innings before turning things over to Aroldis Chapman and Bednar in the eighth and ninth. "Everything was strikes. Closing at home is probably different than closing on the road. You’d probably have to ask him that, I’ve never done it. But it’s different starting at home than on the road and I can assume the crowd behind him gets him a little bit more locked in and on top of his game. It was special tonight." 

Upon entering, Bednar wasted no time going after the Cardinals' five, six, seven and eight hitters in Nolan Arenado, Lars Nootbaar, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Gorman, who homered off of Keller in the fifth. Bednar's splitter, a reliable component to his three-pitch mix, was the weapon he elected to utilize the most, while also mixing in a fair amount of four-seamers and a singular breaking ball.

Bednar needed just three pitches to retire Arenado, forcing him to foul off a fastball at 97 mph, getting him to swing through a splitter at the bottom of the zone and then inducing a 6-3 groundout on another split-finger fastball on the lower third. That at-bat set the tone for the remainder of Bednar's short outing. He continued to mix his splitter and fastball, only turning to his curveball for a first-pitch strike to Nootbaar, who ultimately grounded out for the second out. Goldschmidt reached with a single on one of the seven splitters Bednar threw, but he wouldn't get past the first-base bag, as Bednar made quick work of Gorman with three straight fastballs reaching 97, 96 and 98 at the top of the zone: 

"That's a big spot and I just wanted to challenge him," Bednar said. "Just shows the trust I have in my stuff, the trust I have in Joey (Bart) and the trust I have in the guys behind me to make plays. It was a great example of that today." 

Bednar's got the entrance, the attitude and the tools of a superstar. He's capable of reaching 97 mph with ease using his go-to fastball and, on a more than 20% basis, has relied on his curveball to keep opposing hitters guessing. The latter is a pitch he has turned to over 100 times this season and has yet to yield a hit with. But the split-finger fastball, a pitch known for its deceptive nature in mimicking a fastball prior to dropping down and out of the strike zone, has often served as a reliable piece of Bednar's arsenal, as it did on this particular night. 

"It's a huge part of my mix. When I can use that effectively and switch all of them, I have complete confidence in all three," Bednar said. "When that one's working, it really helps. Going after guys is typically my game plan, and I felt like I was able to execute on it tonight. Wanted to go right after them and get ahead. When you do things like that, good things happen." 

Derek Shelton said he thought Bednar threw at least two of the best splitters he's thrown in a while in Monday's series opener. Add the skipper to the list of people who are well aware of how important the pitch is for Bednar, who has struck out nine batters and generated a 38% whiff rate when going to it just under 20% of the time this season. Entering Monday, hitters were batting just .233 against it.

"They are nasty," Keller said, adding that the speed differential is one of the reasons why it's such an effective pitch. "He just throws so hard, his fastball has some really good carry to it so they have to respect that. Then as soon as you start respecting that, you can’t hit both. So, you have to pick and choose just because his heater helps him so much. It’s a nasty pitch." 

There are plenty of pitchers who have been known to master the splitter around the league, including a pair of Bednar's teammates in Chapman and Paul Skenes, who throws a splitter-sinker hybrid known as the splinker. In the eyes of Joey Bart, who was behind the plate for Bednar's latest save, the splitter is one of the best pitches in the game, and Bednar continues to benefit from the usage of it. 

"The splitter is really hard to hit and he has it and he’s got that funk to him," Bart said. "He’s got gas, you know, throws fuel. He’s got everything, you know what I mean? He’s got the package, he’s got a weird curveball and he’s got a really good split. So that’s a really good recipe to be a two-time All-Star closer." 

Pitch usage aside, Bednar has experienced quite the up-and-down season up to this point. He was limited to two spring training appearances due to a lat injury and struggled mightily during the early parts of the season. It even got to a point where he was hearing boos from the home faithful following one of three blown saves early in his first five appearances of the season. Still, he's never wavered. He turned his April struggles into May and June success, converting on all 11 of his save opportunities and allowing just five runs in 21 1/3 innings. 

Simply put, David Bednar began to look and feel like David Bednar again. 

He did miss close to a month with a left oblique strain, but he's now earned two saves in three appearances since being activated from the injured list on July 12. He experienced a bit of a blip in his last appearance Saturday against the Phillies when he surrendered a solo home run to Bryce Harper in a 4-1 win, but it's fair to let that one slide with everything else he's done to regroup, bounce back and pitch like the All-Star closer Pittsburgh fans have come to know and love. 

"I think, at times, he’s been really sharp and at times things haven’t gone his way but the guy is elite, man," Bart said. "It’s been a blast coming over here and watching him and learning from him and watching him do his thing. He’s got plus stuff and he’s on the attack, and when he’s in that mode, he’s hard to hit."