David Bednar earns 1st save in a month as Pirates' bullpen puts Giants on lockdown

It had been a month since his last save opportunity, so David Bednar couldn’t wait to run to the mound at Oracle Park and close the door on the San Francisco Giants.

One problem: The Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star closer couldn’t figure out how to open the door to exit the bullpen.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Bednar said with a laugh on AT&T SportsNet’s postgame show. “The lock was giving me some trouble. I thought I was going to have to bust it down.”

Bednar pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close the gate and earn his 10th save as the Pirates’ bullpen put a lockdown on the Giants for a 2-1 win Tuesday night.

Dauri Moreta, Jose Hernandez, Colin Holderman and Bednar combined to pitch 4⅔ scoreless innings after Johan Oviedo gave up one run on three hits and five walks with five strikeouts in 4⅓ innings.

“We’re a tight-knit group out there and we just go out there with the ultimate confidence that we’re going to put up zeroes,” Holderman said. “That’s what we did.”

The Pirates take game two of this three game series by a score of 2-1. Connor Joe hit his 6th HR in the win and David Bednar and Colin Holderman helped seal the win. After the game they spoke with Robby Incmikoski. pic.twitter.com/3nUrnfo4ia

— AT&T SportsNet™ PIT (@ATTSportsNetPIT) May 31, 2023

Pirates catcher Jason Delay wasn’t surprised that the Giants managed only two hits and one walk while striking out four times against the four relievers.

“The guys we throw out there all have really, really good stuff and, to be honest, it’s difficult to catch,” Delay said. “If it’s hard to catch, it’s got to be hard to hit.”

Moreta replaced Oviedo with one out and LaMonte Wade Jr. on second base in the fifth, then walked J.D. Davis and gave up a fly ball to center that put both runners in scoring position. Moreta got Mitch Haniger to ground out to third to escape the inning unscathed.

After Blake Sabol hit a leadoff single in the sixth, Moreta struck out Casey Schmitt. Moreta hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 12 outings, a streak that spans 15⅔ innings, and has 21 strikeouts against four walks without an extra-base hit in that stretch.

“The one thing that Moreta has done is we’re seeing more strikes,” manager Derek Shelton said. “He’s commanding the ball. He’s commanding the slider. He’s throwing it in all counts, which is really important.”

Dauri Moreta just did Casey Schmitt so dirty with this slider... (84 MPH, 1979 RPM, 37 inch vert break, 6 inch horizontal break) pic.twitter.com/XymlsWzNWq

— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) May 31, 2023

Shelton turned to Hernandez, and the rookie left-hander got Patrick Bailey to line into an unassisted double play at first base by Connor Joe to end the inning. Hernandez sandwiched two outs around a walk in the seventh before asking Holderman to get four outs.

“Jose, he doesn’t have any fear. He comes in and goes after guys,” Shelton said. “He gets the top of their order with some really good hitters and has to execute pitches. He continues to impress.”

Holderman finished off the seventh by getting Davis to ground into a forceout. In the eighth, Michael Conforto hit a leadoff single but Holderman got Haniger looking at a called third strike and Sabol and Schmitt to fly out to center. Holderman hasn’t allowed a run in his past nine outings and has retired the last 18 right-handed hitters he’s faced.

“It’s just the confidence,” Holderman said. “I go in there and I really believe I’m better. That’s just what it is. It could be wrong but in my head that’s what I’m thinking and it’s been working so far so I’m going to keep doing that.”

That brought the Pirates to Bednar, whose last save came in the first game of a doubleheader on April 29 at Washington. Bednar struck out Bailey and Brett Wisely, then got Wade to fly out to center for his 10th save and a victory that put the Pirates’ record back at .500.

“When we can get to those guys, I think it’s really important,” Shelton said. “We haven’t been able to get to them as much lately but they were outstanding. Colin came in and did a really good job, got out of the jam in the seventh by only throwing two pitches then came out and really threw the ball well in the eighth. And David was outstanding again.”