A beaming David Bednar showed off his silver medal from the World Baseball Classic on Thursday and called playing for Team USA an “awesome experience, top to bottom.”

The Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star closer, interviewed on AT&T SportsNet during a Grapefruit League game against the Boston Red Sox, said playing in the 20-team world tournament “was just unbelievable.”

“Nothing like I’ve ever experienced before,” Bednar said. “The environments were unbelievable. You could really tell the passion the fans had, the extra pride the players had playing for their home country.”

Bednar, a Mars alum, went 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA and 0.75 WHIP in four relief appearances, allowing one run on three hits with five strikeouts and no walks. One of the highlights came in his first appearance, as he recorded three strikeouts in the ninth to close out the 6-2 win over Great Britain in Team USA’s opener in pool play.

David Bednar struck out the side on 18 pitches in a big win for the USA.#WorldBaseballClassic pic.twitter.com/cyPtqPcfQu

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 12, 2023

The lone run came on a 351-foot home run by All-Star Luis Arraez of the Miami Marlins that hit off the right-field foul pole in the seventh inning that gave Venezuela a 7-5 lead in the quarterfinals. Trea Turner of the Philadelphia Phillies answered with a grand slam in the eighth to lift Team USA to a 9-7 victory.

What impressed Bednar is how the collection of major-league stars bonded so fast to share the same goal of winning.

“I was really kind of taken aback,” Bednar said. “It was really cool to see everybody going in the same direction, everybody being there for all the right reasons. I’m so proud to wear USA across the chest and put on that uniform. It was cool because everybody was playing really hard, and everybody wanted to win. You can tell it meant a lot to everybody.”

Pitching against Japan in the WBC title game might have been Bednar’s best moment. He replaced Jason Adam in the bottom of the seventh and got Kensuke Kondoh to pop out to third before giving up an infield single to Shohei Ohtani, who beat Turner’s throw from shortstop. Bednar then got Masataka Yoshida to ground into an inning-ending 5-6-3 double play.

“That was cool,” Bednar said of facing Ohtani, named the WBC MVP. “It was, obviously, very impressive to see what he’s done, both on the mound and at the plate. I was trying to compete in the zone. When you’ve got great fielders like we had on our squad behind us, you just want to fill up the zone and go ahead and let him hit it.”

Ohtani then replaced Yu Darvish to pitch the bottom of the ninth inning, facing Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout in an epic matchup of AL MVPs. Ohtani got Trout swinging at a 3-2 slider to end the game and lift Japan to a 3-2 win for the WBC championship.

“What a way to end the WBC,” Bednar said. “Obviously, we didn’t come out on top, but I don’t think you could script that ending any better.”

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