PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – His teammates had David Bednar’s back after blowing a third save in four opportunities this season as the Tigers rallied to beat the Pirates 5-3 Tuesday afternoon.
Bednar was booed by some of the 10,058 in attendance after leaving the game giving up four runs in the ninth after Martin Perez gave up one in eight innings. Before Bednar spoke with reporters, teammate Rowdy Tellez came over and put his arm around him.
"This is the pride of Pittsburgh,” Tellez said. “To everybody: We don't do that out here. We're a good team. We're winning for a reason. We're gonna get our man back on track, but what happened today is, I think, unacceptable.”
“We as a group in Pittsburgh gotta be better. He's an All-Star for a reason and we just have to be better.”
Then the questions started for the Mars High School graduate, the first being what it means to have that support after the Pirates drop to 9-3.
"It's huge,” Bednar said. “Obviously there's peaks and valleys through every season. We're gonna get over this. It's definitely tough. Seeing these guys have my back, it's huge."
Tuesday it looked shaky from the beginning for Bednar-an inning-opening walk, hit the next batter before a sharp single up the middle scored one and an error by Michael A. Taylor allowed the tying run to score. Bednar would get his only out on a ground ball to first. Then a soft single, another hit batter and single just over the head of shortstop Alika Williams who was playing up near the grass and the Tigers had a 5-3 lead.
He threw 23 pitches in the ninth innings, only nine for strikes. The line was one-third of an inning, three hits, four runs, a walk, two hit batters and an ERA that now sits at 12.46.
"Just no control in the zone right now,” Bednar said. “That's my bread and butter. That's what makes me good. Just need to get back to throwing strikes in the zone, competing in the zone. When I do that, good things happen."
“What we've seen over the past couple of years is he's had elite command,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “Over the last three or four outings, that just hasn't been there. I mean, even with the curveball, hitting Torkelson. Just, we have to clean up the command issue."
Shelton and Bednar both agree that he is healthy, but Shelton points to missing most of Spring Training with a lat issue. He said you’ll see this happen to pitchers who don’t get that work leading up to the season.
As for what is next for the two-time All-Star.
"Just getting with our coaching staff, our catchers, the rest of our relievers and just figure out what's a little bit off, fix it and be right back in no time," Bednar said.
"Yeah, I think we'll sit down and talk about why we think there's command issues,” Shelton said. “If it's mechanical, if it's pitch mix, what it is. I think once we figure that out, we kind of go from there."
"Obviously it's tough,” Bednar said. “You never want to have these stretches, but I think everybody's gone through these before. I've had some struggles before and overcome them. It's still so early. Obviously very frustrating, but at the end of the year, hopefully we'll be looking back and laughing at this."
The 28-year-old right-hander saved 39 games last season with a 2.00 ERA.
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Day off on Wednesday before starting a four-game series in Philadelphia on Thursday night at 6:40p with Dan Zangrilli hosting the North Shore Tavern Leadoff Show presented by Pella Windows at 5:40p.