From Bryan Hoch:
David Bednar looked gassed in a ninth inning that seemed primed for disaster on Monday night, one run already home and two more Blue Jays dancing off the bases. George Springer waited with a bat in hand, ready to add to a collection of ruined pinstriped evenings.
“It’s not gonna happen again,” Bednar said to himself.
Those five words preceded three hellacious splitters, the last of which dived under Springer’s bat. A crowd that had groaned found reason to believe again, and when Bednar induced a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. groundout six pitches later, the Yankees’ closer had sealed a 7-6 victory at Yankee Stadium that was anything but clean.
“Just find a way,” Bednar said. “There’s a way out of every situation. I think it really just comes down to executing one pitch at a time and really slowing it all down. As simple as it sounds, it’s a lot harder to do.”
One day and one bridge ago, Bednar hung a curveball to the Mets’ Tyrone Taylor, surrendering a three-run homer in a gut-punch loss at Citi Field. Yankees manager Aaron Boone felt no need to console Bednar, noting, “We’ve got a lot of grownups in that room.”
Such is the life of a closer; there was a belief that he’d shake it off quickly.
For the most part, Bednar did. Though he said his Sunday evening was “incredibly frustrating,” the 31-year-old arrived in the Bronx on Monday ready for another opportunity.
His arm didn’t feel fresh, not after throwing 44 pitches over the previous three days, but that’s nothing new. Bednar’s bulldog, give-me-the-ball mentality has endeared him to teammates.
“He’s our guy,” Cody Bellinger said. “Full confidence in him. I’ve faced him so many times. It’s a really tough at-bat.”
After Bednar had his meltdown against the Mets, and thrown over 40 pitches between Friday and Sunday, I really couldn’t believe that Boone was using him in this one. Not only that, but Boone noted later that even had Bednar walked Vlad, he was going to stick with Bednar for Okamoto! That’s CRAZY.
That said, I think Bednar really IS better than he has shown, so I get why Boone has such faith in him. Bednar’s two worst outings of the season just happened to occur in the past week or so, with the home run to Turang and the complete disaster of an outing against the Mets.
I think his ERA is misleading, as you got things like the Rays loss where his defense kept failing to make plays around him while the Rays played small ball. Those were all technically hits, but, well, come on. Then you have the Friday Mets game where they scored a meaningless run after defensive indifference, and the Texas game where Duran scored a meaningless run on a groundout after he got to third on essentially defensive indifference.
Bednar allows too many baserunners, for sure, but he really does seem to have a knack for getting out of tough spots because his stuff really IS that good. I’d still prefer him coming in to close a game than Devin Williams, for instance.
Even in this one, the walks are unforgiveable (and, like the home runs, it is notable that most of his walks have come just this week. He normally doesn’t walk guys), but the double was a groundball that just bounced over Goldy’s glove. The guts to throw ALL balls to Springer and to strike him out was very impressive. He knew Springer was waiting for a fastball, and just threw him splitter after splitter after splitter. The other Yankees were even talking about how shocked THEY were by what he did there.
I don’t think there’s another guy in the bullpen I would prefer to close over Bednar. Maybe Lagrange eventually, but we’d have to see how Lagrange looks as a reliever.
In any event, as painful as the Mets loss was, this was pretty much just as painful…for the other team. There is no way the Blue Jays should have lost this game. It was a BRUTAL loss for them, and, therefore, a nice win for the Yankees.
Anthony Volpe is showing enough that I really wonder whether Spencer Jones is getting sent down when Caballero returns, as Schuemann is showing some life, too. Volpe has been good enough that you have to wonder if it makes sense to let Cabby play some third when he gets back, and play them both over McMahon.
Meanwhile, Goldy simply HAS to remain the everyday first baseman until Stanton returns, right? He can leadoff against lefties, and bat 5th against righties until he wears down, and you sit him against righties.
Ryan Weathers pitched a LOT better than his line, but, hey, your line is your line. Paul Blackburn was really good out of the pen. What if they just TRIED to let the guy be a fucking short man instead of using him as a long man that they’ll never actually use?
With the Blue Jays throwing Cease and Yesavage in the next two games, this one was a must-win, so, well, I am glad that the Yankees won it. It sure wasn’t a game they would have won last year ever.
Featured image can’t be Bednar, so I’m going with Jazz showing off his baggy pants he got from Stanton after his go-ahead home run. Jazz is a weird dude.
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Agreed, Bednar’s a whole lot better than he’s looked lately.
But he’s not a stud closer for a stud bullpen, either.
He’s not the closer we need, but the one we deserve.
It was only 14 months ago that The Pirates sent him to the minors. If Springer had taken one of the three out of the strike zone pitches Bednar threw would he have buckled and broken?
If we give him the benefit of the doubt, Bednar could use a phantom IL stint, and also some reinforcements when he gets back.
I’m really pumped for Volpe’s nice return. We’ve been burned before, and I agree that he has been given way more leash than necessary, but I still think he can be an average hitter and therefore a good player.
Volpe’s been 3rd-5th percentile in batting run value for his first 3 years, according to Savant. I’d love to see him continue to have the good outcomes he’s seen in his first week this season, but he’s got like .400 OBP on walks alone and that isn’t going to continue. My worry is that he is reluctant to make adjustments mid-season – he’s always spoken more about just sticking to a plan.
I suspect his early success is that the league didn’t pay him much attention, and now they will and he’ll regress. But maybe if Boone rests him once a week, that’ll allow him to regroup and adjust more frequently.
Vj, WHAT early success? In the minors, those two two-week hot streaks?
Success in the beginning of the season 3 years in a row isn’t explained by pitchers adjusting, I don’t think.
Also, when he’s been good it’s not been based on crazy BABIP or anything. I agree he seems to have been unable to adjust to his slumps, and last year there was the injury. Yet, I still believe, not that he WILL but that he COULD.
PW, the only “early success” I meant was this last week. As SM points out, Volpe’s occasionally shown flashes of cromulence early in a season, but they receded so quickly from view that they had also receded from my memory and I wouldn’t give them much weight. Could be statistical noise, or could be loss of focus.
In 173 career games in April and March Volpe has a ~.732 OPS.
DFA McMahon, and while you’re paying out his contract, buy him a Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes van to drive around in.
windowless white van with a soiled mattress in the back
Those mattresses don’t soil themselves, you know.
I think they can deal with McMahon as a super-sub who then comes into the game late for defense in games he doesn’t start.
When Cabby comes back, I figure you send Jones back down, and then the bench is:
Escarra
McMahon
Rosario
Schuemann
And when Stanton returns, send Schuemann or Volpe down (if Volpe is back to being shit by then), and Goldschmidt moves to the bench (If Goldy is still hitting when Stanton returns, then you REALLY need to consider having Rice catch again).
i turned it to hockey when it went 3-0 to springer.
Quelles surprises, deux fois
By the way, I forgot to mention the fascinating bit of news that they might skip Cole’s last rehab start and just start him on Friday. I don’t think “skip” and “rehab start” go well together, but who knows?
The Yankees have the same record as the Dodgers. I wonder if they have a site with as much negativity as this one 🙂
Well, I mean, if the Yankees were coming off back-to-back World Series wins, I think we’d be SLIGHTLY less irritated at them right now.
Slightly.
The NL is FAR different beast than the AL. In the AL Seattle would have the 3rd Wild Card with a 23 and 26 record.
In the NL the 3rd Wild Card would be St. Louis at 27-19.
Put another way, The Yankees would be 1 game up on the Cards for the 3rd Wild Card spot in the NL, and the Mets would be 1 game back of the 3rd Wild Card spot in the AL. And that is with ignoring that the Yankees got their record playing weak AL teams and the Mets are playing stronger NL teams.
But yes, I imagine the are Dodger sites that are disappointed with their results so far… but you know, winning 2 World Series in a row buys you some leeway.
CF T. Grisham L
1B Ben Rice L
RF Aaron Judge R
LF C. Bellinger L
2B J. Chisholm L
3B Ryan McMahon L
SS A. Volpe R
DH S. Jones L
C Austin Wells L
I know Cease is a tough righty, but I would have still liked to have seen Goldy get another start. Dude is OPSing over 1.000!
Let Spencer knock Cease out* then let Goldy PH.
Just kidding, Jones will strike out three times as Cease throws his first career 27-strikeout perfect game.
* I meant that in the non-injury sense. Apologies to Clay Holmes.
Sitting the hot hand is a Boone specialty!
Cole will start on Friday against the Rays.
https://www.mlb.com/news/gerrit-cole-2026-debut-vs-rays-may-22