All-Star closer David Bednar blows save as Tigers rally past Pirates with 4 runs in 9th

David Bednar lowered his head as he walked off the mound at PNC Park, hearing the sound of boos from Pittsburgh Pirates fans after blowing a two-run lead by surrendering four runs in the ninth inning.

The Pirates got an eight-inning quality start from left-hander Martin Perez and two home runs from outfielder Edward Olivares and expected their two-time All-Star closer to shut the door for a series sweep.

Instead, Bednar couldn’t command his pitches and blew a save for the third time this season. The Tigers rallied for a 5-3 win to preserve a two-game series split Tuesday afternoon before 10,058 at PNC Park.

“Just no control in the zone right now. That’s my bread and butter. That’s what makes me good,” Bednar said. “Just need to get back to throwing strikes in the zone, competing in the zone. When I do that, good things happen.”

Bednar led all MLB closers with a 92.9% save percentage (39 of 42) last year but hasn’t been right this season. The first two blown saves didn’t cost the Pirates a victory, but this one did.

Bednar blew a save opportunity in the ninth inning but got the win as the Pirates rallied for two runs in the 10th in the opening series sweep at Miami. He also gave up a run in the ninth against Baltimore on Saturday, but Oneil Cruz hit a walk-off single in the 11th.

This time, Bednar (1-1) allowed two walks, hit a pair of batters with pitches and gave up three RBI singles in one-third of an inning before being replaced by Roansy Contreras, who recorded the final two outs.

“At the end of the day, there’s no excuse. I need to execute,” said Bednar, who missed most of spring training with right lat tightness but claimed to be healthy. “They played their butts off today. I wasn’t able to finish it. At the end of the day, I just need to be better and, ultimately, just throw strikes in the zone. I just was not able to do that today, and it ended up costing us the game.”

Bednar walked Riley Greene to start the ninth, then hit Spencer Torkelson with a curveball. Gio Urshela singled to center to drive in Greene, but Michael A. Taylor’s throw to third skipped past Ke’Bryan Hayes, allowing pinch runner Zach McKinstry to score the tying run.

Urshela advanced to third on the errant throw, but the Pirates won a challenge, overturning the extra base. It didn’t matter. Parker Meadows, who pinch-ran for Urshela, advanced to third on Colt Keith’s groundout to first and scored on Kerry Carpenter’s bloop single over shortstop Alika Williams to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead. After hitting Javier Baez, Bednar gave up another single to Jake Rodgers to score Carpenter to make it 5-3.

“The command issue is something we got to get cleaned up,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I mean, what we’ve seen over the past couple of years is he’s had elite command. Over the last three or four outings, that just hasn’t been there. …

“I mean, he’s healthy. It’s a matter of being sharp. But I think this is also a matter of when you see pitchers miss spring training that this can have some effect.”

Perez provided the Pirates with a sixth consecutive quality start — only the fourth such stretch from their starting rotation since 2019 — by recording seven strikeouts without a walk while giving up one run on six hits in throwing 70 of his 100 pitches for strikes over eight innings.

“Martin was outstanding. He was in control,” Shelton said. “The first inning, Ke’ made an unbelievable play to get him out of that. And then after that, there really wasn’t much hard contact. He kind of stayed off the barrel the entire time. So, it’s very encouraging that that’s the sixth quality start and that Martin was so effective and efficient.”

After striking out six in 6 2/3 innings in a 7-4 win at Washington last Wednesday, Perez delivered his second consecutive strong start despite giving up a run in the first inning.

Matt Vierling hit a leadoff single to left, advanced to second on Greene’s single to right and scored on Torkelson’s single to center to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Perez got Urshela to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to limit the damage.

Olivares tied it in the second, hitting Casey Mize’s first-pitch fastball 395 feet to left field for a leadoff home run.

The Pirates took a 2-1 lead in the third, when Bryan Reynolds doubled down the right field line and scored on a single by Hayes.

Mark Canha doubled to left in the sixth and advanced to third on Greene’s groundout, but Perez got Torkelson to ground out to short to prevent the Tigers from tying the score.

Mize allowed two runs on five hits and one walk in five innings before the Tigers turned to lefty Tyler Horton in the sixth.

Olivares homered again, hammering a 2-1 changeup and sending it 407 feet to left-center for a 3-1 lead. It marked the first multi-homer game of the season by a Pirates player and the third of Olivares’ career.

Where Detroit couldn’t get to Perez, its defense saved a couple of runs. With Jared Triolo on first in the fifth inning, Hayes hit a 390-foot shot to left that Greene caught before crashing into the wall. After Henry Davis drew a leadoff walk in the seventh, Triolo’s 23-game on-base streak came to an end when his line drive to right-center was snagged by Vierling, who also robbed Olivares of an extra-base hit in the eighth.

“They played some pretty good outfield defense,” Shelton said. “I mean, Vierling caught the ball that (Olivares) hit, he caught the ball Triolo hit, Riley robbed a two-run homer from Ke’. It changes the scope of the game, so you have to give them credit.”

Bednar gave Rowdy Tellez credit for having his back despite his struggles. The slugger stood in front of Bednar’s locker and voiced his support for his teammate before cameras, admonishing fans for booing Bednar.

“This is the pride of Pittsburgh,” Tellez said of Bednar, a Mars alum. “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.”