We need to talk about David Bednar.
The Pirates have had an incredible start; on Tuesday morning, the Buccos were 9-2, with the best record in baseball. While a winning percentage north of .800 obviously isn’t sustainable, there’s nothing in this club’s DNA to suggest that the Pirates can’t be good this year.
But Bednar — who captured the collective heart of Western Pennsylvania last year — has been awful.
I spent Tuesday afternoon on the couch in my Squirrel Hill apartment, with an idle eye on a Zoom class, a fever pushing 103 degrees, and what was left of my dwindling mental power focusing on the Pirates game unfolding on a background tab on my computer.
But for nearly the whole game, things were going well; the Pirates led the Tigers 3-1 heading into the ninth inning, and fantasies of a 10-2 record danced in my head. They’d gotten there almost entirely on the back of an incredible performance by Martín Perez, who threw eight strong innings, allowing just a handful of hits and one run, before turning things over to Bednar for the top of the ninth.
When Bednar walked out onto the field, I thought he’d do well and get us the save, simply because he had a chip on his shoulder and something to prove. Through his first four outings, he’d notched a save and blown two; it only stood to reason that he’d do whatever he was physically capable of to prove that, yes, he still had it.
But then he imploded. First came a walk, before hitting Spencer Torkelson with a curveball way, way inside. Then came Gio Urshela, who swatted one over second base for one of those “ugh, I guess” singles that scored a run, made infinitely worse when Michael A. Taylor, the Pirates’ new center fielder picked up over the offseason from the Twins, couldn’t quite connect on the throw to third meant to catch Torkelson. The ball bounced over Ke’Bryan Hayes’ glove and into the stands, and when the dust settled, the game was knotted up at three and Urshela was on second. After a ground ball moved Urshela to third, Kerry Carpenter tapped a pop-up just past the reach of shortstop Alika Williams, who was all the way up on the edge of the grass to cut off the run at home; Bednar then threw a curveball so far inside that it nearly went behind Javi Baez, barely clipping his back, before Jake Rogers sent a grounder into the gap between short and third to score Carpenter.
At that point, Derek Shelton finally gave Bednar the thumb, replacing him with Roansy Contreras, who put the next two down in order to end the onslaught. But the damage was done. Detroit won, 5-3, and handed the Buccos our third loss of the young season.
In the midst of all that, we saw something I never thought we’d see — David Bednar (David Bednar!) being booed at PNC Park.
Let’s hope he gets back on track; he went on to pick up a save on Tuesday. But as of now, he’s on probation.
(The Pirates have stunk this week; I’m focusing on this particular facet of their stinkiness. But they’ve stunk.)
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