Rosenthal: The story behind Mets’ Edwin Díaz helping get Pirates’ David Bednar into All-Star Game

Pirates closer David Bednar reacted as if he had not quite heard Braves bullpen coach Drew French correctly.

“Bednar, you’re in the game,” French said after the top of the eighth inning during Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium.

Bednar, a first-time All-Star at 27, pointed to himself in the National League bullpen, touching his chest, as if to say, “Me?”

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It wasn’t that Bednar was unprepared; he had been ready to pitch the entire game. But after warming up in the fourth, only to sit back down, he thought his moment had passed.

It might have, if not for Edwin Díaz.

The Mets closer did not necessarily know every detail of Bednar’s story, how in 2016 the Padres had selected him out of Lafayette College in a round that no longer exists in the amateur draft, the 35th. How the Padres in Jan. 2021 had traded Bednar to the Pirates as part of a three-team deal that sent Joe Musgrove to San Diego. How Bednar, who grew up in Mars, Pa., about 25 miles north of Pittsburgh, had become a fan favorite while emerging as a stalwart for his hometown team.

Díaz, however, knew this much: He had pitched in an All-Star Game, in 2018 as a member of the Mariners, and Bednar had not. He kept pestering French, telling him Bednar could take his inning. Manager Brian Snitker’s original plan was for Díaz, one of the game’s most dominant relievers, to pitch the ninth if the NL led or the score was tied.

All-Star Games generally follow a script, with managers assigning pitchers specific innings. Managers and coaches always handle players with caution, striving to return them to their teams in the same condition as when they arrived, or better.

The Braves’ staff told the pitchers that starters would work the first five innings. Bednar did not have a set assignment; he expected to relieve another pitcher who got into trouble, clean up a “dirty” inning. That’s why he was warming up in the fourth, when the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin allowed back-to-back homers to Giancarlo Stanton and Byron Buxton. But Gonsolin eventually completed the inning, leaving Bednar in a troubling spot. The Braves staff had told the NL relievers prior to the game: If you warm up but don’t pitch, you’re done for the night.

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The game moved into the later innings. The NL continued to trail, 3-2. Díaz, knowing Bednar would relish the experience of pitching on the All-Star stage, again told French, “I don’t have any problem if you want to pitch him.” He had expressed a similar sentiment to French and Braves pitching coach Rick Kranitz before the game, saying he was more than happy to give up his inning or split it with another pitcher to give someone else a chance.

Snitker, managing an All-Star Game for the first time, was struck by the unselfishness of Díaz and other veteran All-Stars. Albert Pujols was among those who told him: “I’ve done this before. Let the guys who haven’t been here play.” Snitker, mind you, was not about to deprive Pujols of an at-bat in his final All-Star Game. But the manager, after returning to Atlanta on Wednesday, said the willingness of veteran All-Stars to sacrifice playing time for first-timers, “was a really cool part of this whole thing.”

French joked that the Braves wanted Díaz to pitch, seeing as how he plays for the division rival Mets. But the entire NL bullpen, it seemed, had a soft spot for Bednar.

“Edwin was the ringleader of it. He really spearheaded the effort,” French said. “But once this was kind of going down, everyone started to get involved emotionally, wanting him to get out there, get him in the game.”

Part of French’s job as a bullpen coach is to monitor the intensity of relievers as they warm up. Watching Bednar in the fourth, he saw a pitcher working at only about 50 percent effort. Bednar said he threw only five or six pitches, “if that.” So, while he was mindful of the strict instructions from the Braves’ staff about usage, he wasn’t completely sure they applied to him.

“I was still holding out hope,” Bednar said.

After Gonsolin finished the fourth, French said there was some discussion among the staff about Bednar pitching the fifth. But Reds ace Luis Castillo had begun throwing at the same time as Bednar. As a starter, he needed more time to warm up. He could not sit back down. He needed to get into the game.

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Bednar, it seemed, had lost his chance.

“He’s down and we’re not going to get him back up. We’re not going to use him again,” Kranitz told French on the bullpen phone.

“His effort level was pretty low,” French replied, referring to Bednar’s warmup.

“I don’t know him,” Kranitz responded. “I don’t want to do that to Pittsburgh. I don’t want to do that to their guy.”

French explained to Bednar he could try to talk to the dugout again, but in all likelihood Kranitz’s decision was final. The other pitchers in the NL bullpen, seeing what was happening, sympathized with Bednar. Only Díaz and Miles Mikolas had been All-Stars previously, but others also voiced their opinions.

“They were all kind of nudging me, ‘Go tell him you want to throw. Go tell him you want to throw,’” Bednar said. “I was saying, ‘Obviously, I want to throw, but it’s not really my place to make a stand, pound the table, force my way in there.’”

Díaz noted Bednar’s reluctance, saying he was “kind of afraid” to make his position clear. French picked up a similar vibe. “He was not necessarily afraid to talk to me, but he might have felt it was a little disrespectful to have that conversation,” French said.

So, Díaz continued lobbying, telling French he was fine throwing a bullpen to get his work in or even a lighter, touch-and-feel session. Díaz even took his case to Braves bullpen catcher José Yépez, who in turn went back to French.

“Look, Edwin really wants Bednar to have his inning. It’s his first All-Star Game. (No one knows) if he’s ever going to be back,” Yépez told French.

French was caught in the middle.

“I’m continuing to tell that to the dugout, but it’s going to be their call,” he told Yépez. “And they’re trying to do well by everyone who is down here.”

Castillo pitched the fifth, Joe Mantiply the sixth, Devin Williams the seventh. When the dugout called for Ryan Helsley to work the eighth, French made what he called “a last-ditch effort” on Bednar’s behalf, saying the reliever confirmed he would be good to go in the ninth, and repeating that the risk would be minimal because Bednar had barely exerted himself warming up earlier.

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“OK,” Kranitz said. “I’m going to take it to ‘Snit’ and call you back.”

And with that, the NL’s initial blueprint began to fall apart.

Kranitz made Snitker aware that those remaining in the bullpen — Díaz, Mikolas, Tyler Anderson, plus the coaches —  were “ganging up” to get Bednar to pitch. Snitker reasoned that at 6-foot-1, 250 pounds, Bednar was a “big strong, kid” who could handle warming up a second time and then pitching an inning.

“We decided, ‘Screw it, man,’” Snitker said. “If we went ahead, he was going to close. I didn’t want to warm him up again and have him not pitch.”

Mikolas and Anderson were the only other NL pitchers left besides Díaz. Snitker and Kranitz did not want to use them. Díaz would have entered the game only if Bednar had gotten into trouble.

Of course, the NL never took the lead, but Bednar was coming in either way. French described him as “shocked” to finally learn he was going to pitch. Bednar said he was not completely surprised, but by that point his expectations were minimal.

“At the end of day, I just did not want to get caught off guard at all,” Bednar said. “Just in case there was a sliver of hope, I was going to stay locked in and ready to go.”

Bednar was not unfamiliar with the mound and atmosphere at Dodger Stadium, which is quite different than say, a Tuesday night at PNC Park. He had pitched at the stadium on May 30, blowing his first save of the season in the eighth inning but rebounding with a scoreless ninth to earn the win in a resounding 6-5 triumph for the Pirates.

His previous experience gave him comfort. As he took the mound Tuesday night, he was not especially nervous. He was just excited.

“I wanted to go out, just attack, let it rip, try and showcase my stuff, represent the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh the best I could,” Bednar said.

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His inning went almost perfectly. Groundouts by Corey Seager, Jose Trevino and J.D. Martinez, sandwiched around an eight-pitch walk to Santiago Espinal. The Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase struck out the side to close out the NL in the ninth. But to Bednar’s family, it was as if he, and not Clase, had earned the save.

Bednar’s fiancé, Casey Merritt, was in attendance, along with his parents, Andrew and Sue; his brother, Will, a right-handed starter who was the 14th-overall pick by the Giants in last year’s draft; and his sister, Danielle, a shortstop who is headed to St. Francis on a softball scholarship. A number of other relatives also made the trip.

“That made it even cooler, seeing all of their reactions after the game,” Bednar said. “I know I was beyond pumped. To see everybody else being that excited for me was even more special.”

Díaz knew the feeling. Just getting named an All-Star is an honor. Pitching in the game is even better. Díaz blew a save in the 2018 All-Star Game, allowing a two-run homer to Scooter Gennett. But he wound up the winning pitcher when the AL won, 8-6, in 10 innings.

“Everybody who goes to the All-Star Game for the first time wants to be part of the game,” Díaz said.

Thirty-seven first-time All-Stars were selected to this year’s game, and only four did not appear — Yordan Alvarez and Jazz Chisholm Jr. were injured, while Anderson and Jordan Romano went unused. Bednar, though, took perhaps the most unusual path to the field.  French, who also was participating in his first All-Star Game, said Wednesday he still had “chills” thinking about the way Díaz and the other NL pitchers rallied around the Pirates’ closer.

“It put the cherry on top of this whole experience,” French said. “These guys don’t know each other from Adam, for the most part. You see each other compete. You have mutual respect. But the way they emotionally connected for one or two days, that was something that I was really taken aback by.”

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Bednar, for his part, will never forget Díaz’s gesture.

“It speaks volumes of who he is as a person and teammate,” Bednar said. “He didn’t have to do that.”

Perhaps in a future All-Star Game, Bednar will be in position to make the same accommodation for a teammate, and pay it all forward.

(Top photo of Bednar: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today Sports)