Having the Pirates bullpen work with a lead was a rare luxury

At this point in May, any win is worth celebrating for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Their 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night was just their seventh this month against 18 losses.

How manager Derek Shelton’s team got to that result Tuesday was a reminder of how underutilized one of the strengths of the team has been of late.

That’s the bullpen on the rare occasions when the club has a lead.

David Bednar, Colin Holderman, Dauri Moreta and Jose Hernandez pitched a combined 4⅔ scoreless innings in relief to nail down the win after starter Johan Oviedo managed just 4⅓ innings. That’s largely because he issued five walks and threw 92 pitches.

After going 20-9 to start the season, the Pirates starters have been worse this month (6-13, 4.46 ERA) than they were in March and April (15-7, 3.83 ERA), and the position players have been awful at the plate (.217 team batting average) in May. So the opportunities for Shelton to roll out his bullpen with the lead have been few and far between.

Proving that point, Bednar’s save Tuesday was his 10th of the season and his first opportunity since April 29th.

“It was impressive,” Bednar said of the bullpen’s effort following his save on AT&T SportsNet. “It’s a good group out there. We trust that everybody that goes out there will fill it up and get the job done.”

Holderman — who hasn’t allowed a run in his last nine outings — bridged the seventh and eighth innings for a clutch four-out appearance, pitching around a base runner in both innings.

“When my name is called I have to go pitch no matter how many outs as it is. I’m just trying to give it my best and give us the best chance to win,” Holderman said.

With a lead, the Pirates whole staff is yielding a .228 batting average against (tied for second in the National League) and a WHIP of 1.19 (fourth in the N.L.). The team’s overall bullpen ERA (2.33) and its WHIP (1.28) are third in the N.L.

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Unfortunately, their 20 save opportunities are only 19th in Major League Baseball.

“When we can get to those guys, I think it’s really important. We haven’t been able to get to them as much lately, but they were outstanding,” Shelton said after the win.

The great irony of the night was when Bednar tried to enter the game in the ninth, the bullpen door was jammed and he was momentarily locked in the pen. An obvious metaphor for the closer who was — for the first time in over a month — finally being called on to do the job he is paid to do.

“The lock was giving me some trouble. I thought I was going to have to bust it down. … You’ve got to be kidding me,” Bednar said.

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

That’s a phrase Pirates fans have been using all too often this month. If they can get games to the bullpen with the lead more often, maybe they won’t have to use it as frequently in June.