The Yankees made it through their recent 12-game gauntlet relatively unscathed, leading them into a final stretch of four series where they have an opportunity to make an eleventh hour push to try and win the division. They checked their first box in taking two out of three from the Twins, though the series win was far more tense than it needed to be, first getting shut out in the opener before almost squandering a 10-1 lead in the middle game. We return to the final hitter of that 10-9 victory for our Sequence
of the Week.
Royce Lewis digs in with two outs and the bases empty in the bottom of the ninth. The Yankees are clinging to a 10-9 lead after Cam Schlittler fell apart in the fifth and Ryan Yarbrough melted down in the sixth. Even closer David Bednar hit a speed bump in the ninth, surrendering a solo home run to Trevor Larnach to allow the Twins to draw within one.
Larnach ambushed a middle-up 0-1 four-seamer for his home run, so Bednar switches things up a bit to Lewis by starting with a first-pitch four-seamer low hoping to get a called strike at the bottom of the zone.
Bednar doesn’t miss his spot by much, but this pitch starts low out of his hand and only travels farther below the zone, making for a pretty straightforward take from Lewis.
Rather than double up on the fastball — a pitch that Lewis might just be hunting as he anticipates Bednar trying to even the count — Bednar switches to his trusty curveball. The pitch has been such a weapon for Bednar this season now that he has gained the confidence to throw it in the zone more. The movement and velocity differential off the heater allows it to rack up whiffs even when thrown in the zone, plus it’s always available to him when he needs to steal a called strike to get back into a count.
It’s the latter role that this curveball plays, Bednar dropping in a beauty just below the zone for a called strike thanks to a generous call from the home plate umpire.
Now that Bednar has seen that he can steal a few inches below the zone for a called strike with the breaker, the only option in this situation is to throw another curveball to the exact same spot and force the ump to make another decision on a borderline pitch.
Bednar almost replicates his execution to a T, this curveball landing at the same height but just a few inches farther outside. You can see Lewis is tempted to swing after the previous pitch was called a strike, but he holds up in time and Bednar is unable to earn consecutive generous calls.
Despite the count leverage tipping back in Lewis’ favor with that disciplined take, Bednar by no means has to give in and throw a fastball in the zone. He likely knows that Lewis is leaning heater in this spot, so if he can make a secondary pitch look like an in-zone fastball out of the hand, there’s a good chance he can induce a whiff.
This is such a filthy pitch. Bednar executes his plan to perfection, aiming this splitter at the lower half of the zone and trusting that its downward movement will carry it out of the hitting zone. The pitch looks like a low fastball for the vast majority of its path toward home, only falling off the table at the last moment. Lewis has already started his swing before the vertical break kicks in, so there is zero chance of him adjusting his swing trajectory mid-path.
After making Lewis look silly on the previous whiff, his barrel missing over the top of the splitter by almost a foot, Bednar’s decision for the next pitch is made for him. If he can execute another splitter to the same spot, maybe even a tad lower, there’s a good chance he can induce another chase and whiff from Lewis for the game-ending strikeout.
That is precisely what Bednar pulls off with this 2-2 splitter, the pitch heading down a similar trajectory as the one preceding it, but landing just a little lower and a littler farther outside, making it that much harder for Lewis to make any sort of contact to stay alive. He dutifully swings and misses, waving over the pitch as Bednar slams the door to earn the save.
Here’s the full sequence:
The Yankees are still a ways from fully solving their bullpen puzzle despite that being the area of highest investment at the trade deadline. Luke Weaver, Devin Williams, Fernando Cruz, and Camilo Doval have all experienced blow ups in recent weeks, which makes it that much more important that the one stable presence happens to be their closer. Sometimes it’s as simple as having the most consistent command, something Bednar showed off in spades this AB. The way he repeats his delivery on the back-to-back curveballs and back-to-back splitters puts the pressure on not only the hitter but also the umpire. He’s as reliable as they come for the ninth inning, meaning the Yankees have one less uncertainty to worry about — the focus now is finding that ideal bridge to hand a lead to Bednar.
