Aaron Boone's response to David Bednar save should have Yankees fans asking questions

For like the 10th time this year, the New York Yankees "saved" their season with a near-death victory. They took down the Texas Rangers in Wednesday's series finale in a tight-rope effort, sealed with a five-out save from David Bednar.

The night prior, manager Aaron Boone bypassed going to Bednar during Devin Williams' meltdown, which angered fans to no end. On Monday, Bednar put in an efficient inning of work, logging 11 pitches and holding the Yankees' 5-4 lead in the eighth before Williams blew it. After the game, when asked about the decision to go with Williams, Boone said the only alternative he considered was maybe going to Bednar for one more out in the ninth. And to that, we say, why are we counting outs? Shouldn't you just go with the pitcher who is efficiently sitting down the opposition? What if Bednar got the fourth out on two pitches?

Nonetheless, Bednar's five-out, 42-pitch save on Wednesday was something Yankees fans have been dying to see with all the bullpen struggles this year. What everybody liked even more was that Bednar told Boone he wasn't coming out of the game when the manager went to the mound with two on and two out in the ninth.

Bednar kept the ball, shut it down, and stopped the bleeding to end the five-game losing streak. After the game, Boone said "that's a dawg effort right there." Awesome. Love that the trade deadline infused some energy and life into this team in that regard.

But then that begs the question ... where are the rest of the "dawgs" on this roster? We haven't heard a single quote like this in months. The Yankees have been playing sub-.500 baseball since Memorial Day. We haven't seen a semblance of what Bednar did on Wednesday over the course of the last 10 weeks. And the "new guy" is immediately a "dawg" while the rest of the players are standing around and staring at one another?

Aaron Boone's response to David Bednar's unreal save should have Yankees fans asking questions

Think about last year. Remember when Alex Verdugo used the "dawg" bark as the rallying cry in April ... only for that mentality to disappear in less than six weeks? The dugout was raucous for the first two-ish months of the season, and then returned back to its lifeless state. The Yankees went 40-19 to start the year, and then finished 54-49. This year, they started 35-22 and have gone 26-32 since.

Perhaps Bednar's moment of savagery reinvigorates this team. It's possible. But the paper trail of evidence with the Yankees not riding with momentum, not being able to dig themselves out of a hole, and not successfully responding to adversity is well documented.

Until then, we'll still be looking for the other "dawgs" on the active roster.