After blowing up Sunday in catastrophic loss to the New York Mets, David Bednar looked more like himself on Monday.
Bednar successfully walked the tightrope, despite walking one and allowing a run, by striking out two and inducing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground into a game-ending fielder’s choice in the New York Yankees‘ 7-6 win Monday over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Bednar allowed a run for the third straight outing, and his ERA ballooned to 5.14. But the embattled Yankees closer picked up his 11th save of the season and helped the Yankees win for only the third time in their past 10 games.
“Great job by him of having a tough one yesterday and this one not getting off to a good start,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It kind of shows who he is, and his mettle, that he doesn’t stop giving in and he doesn’t stop making pitches.”
The Yankees (29-19) remained three games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, who won 16-6 over the Baltimore Orioles on Monday. The Rays (31-15) and Yankees have the two best records in the American League.
David Bednar Barely Locked Down his 11th Save
Bednar has struggled with control all season. He’s already walked as many batters (9) in 21 appearances as he had in 22 outings with the Yankees in 2025, and he has 10 fewer strikeouts as well.
But he’s only blown two saves this season, though Monday there were moments where it looked like Bednar would cough up third, and second in as many days. He walked the leadoff hitter, Ernie Clement, then surrendered a double to pinch hitter Jesus Sanchez, which both bounced over first baseman Paul Goldschmidt’s head and made it 7-6.
Bednar, as usual, used his split-finger fastball to try and wrangle his way out of trouble and used his primary pitch to strike out Brandon Valenzuela for the first out.
But Bednar then put on the go-ahead run when he walked the No. 9 hitter, Yohendrick Piñango, which sent Yankees-killer George Springer to the plate.
After falling behind 3-0, Bednar got Springer to chase a splitter then buried two great splitters to strike him out. He then fell behind 2-0 to Guerrero before evening the count with his No. 2 pitch, a curveball, before he finally got the Blue Jays slugger to ground out to end the game.
“Just hangin’ on [and] digging in over there,” Boone said of Bednar. “He just kept making pitches and obviously got two really tough customers there at the end in Springer and Vladdy.
“That’s one of the things we love about him, that he’s not flappable. No matter what’s going on, you trust who he is.”
The Yankees Had Brent Headrick Up Behind David Bednar on Monday Night
The Yankees bullpen was taxed after using six relievers Sunday and five in Saturday’s loss to the Mets. The fact Bednar threw 36 pitches Monday, his second-most of any appearance this season, was a testament to the state of the Yankees bullpen.
Yet, lefty Brent Headrick was up behind Bednar on Monday night, which was an interesting development. Contrary to Bednar, whose WHIP (1.62) is one of the worst on the team, Headrick has been great, sporting a 2.31 ERA and respectable 1.29 WHIP and has a 10.0 strikeout-per-nine inning rate.
So aside from Camilo Doval and Fernando Cruz, we may see Boone go to Headrick in save situations in the future.
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