The Pirates beat the Tigers in just over two hours thanks to eight stellar innings from Braxton Ashcraft in a 4-1 win Tuesday night. Ashcraft gave up just one run on five hits while striking out four batters and walking none. His eight innings came on just 80 pitches in another incredible efficient outing. DiNardo and Tyler (and then Doug) recapped this one on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti Bros. You can watch or listen here:
Here’s my 3 takeaways from this win:
How Do You Spell Ace?
Remember that old Rolaids commercial from the 70’s and 80’s…”How do you spell relief? R-O-L-A-I-D-S.” Well, how about how do you spell ace? I spell it A-S-H-C-R-A-F-T. Braxton Ashcraft followed up his complete game masterpiece with another fabulous outing and nearly a second straight complete game. He finished with eight innings on just 80 pitches and could have pitched the 9th, but Don Kelly decided to go with Mason Montgomery to close it out. Ashcraft has been the best pitcher all season for the Bucs and while folks were worried about his innings total, he’s getting stronger as the season inches toward the finish line. He’s your stopper and he’s your ace in 2026.
Ashcraft started the game with three straight 1-2-3 innings. He gave up singles to Kevin McGonigle and Colt Keith in the 4th inning, but got an inning-ending double play in the next at-bat. In the 5th inning, he surrendered a two-out solo home run to Brett Callahan for the only run for the Tigers in this game. In the 6th inning, he gave up one single to Gleyber Torres and got the next two outs, he went 1-2-3 in the 7th inning and then gave up a leadoff single in the 8th inning and got the next three outs to finish his start on a strong note. If you’re going to give up a home run, solo ones are the ones to give up and besides that it was all singles. I’ve said this throughout the season and it’s held true here in his last two outings: Ashcraft has a pitched a bunch of low-stress innings because he just hasn’t allowed many hits or much traffic on the base paths.
Ashcraft has made 25 starts this season and he failed to go at least five innings in just two of them. And he’s gone more than five innings in 16-out-of-25 starts. His season ERA is now down to 3.68 and he improves to 13-5. Ashcraft had a couple rough outings in July, but he has certainly righted the ship and looks better and the efficiency has been fantastic. He’s not worried about striking everyone out, he’s pitching and getting outs. Though he can strike a lot out as evident by his complete game start last time out when he struck out 10. It’s been a truly impressive run by a starting pitcher who’s in his first full season in the Majors.
Welcome Back, Oneil Cruz
We last saw Oneil Cruz on June 7 before he was scratched from the lineup the next day and then hit the IL with a fractures in two of his fingers. He began a rehab assignment two months later on August 7, went to two levels, played two levels and didn’t hit real well at Indy and Altoona. He was activated before Monday’s game, but didn’t play at all which was a little worrisome like is 100% healthy? But it was nice to see him back in the lineup and center field Tuesday night, and it was really nice to see him belt a Keider Montero 2-2 knuckle curve into the seats for his 15th home run of the season to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead and turn the whole game around. CRUZ MISSILES ARE BACK…
And that’s the fun and power of Cruz. This lineup has missed him and it’s good to have him back and picking up right where he left off. Just because he’s back, though, doesn’t mean the Pirates playoff hopes are back on. I just want to see him have a nice month and a half to finish off the season. And with him back, you can get a little more flexible and play Mangum at one of the corner OF spots to rest Valdez or give Reynolds a chance to DH like in this game. It just makes the team better all around. The Pirates are now 10-4 in games when Cruz homers. Welcome back, Oneil!
Nice Short Game
Another added benefit of Braxton Ashcraft starts recently is that the game flies by. Tuesday night’s game was a nice 2:02 game time. That’s just fine by me! Nice quick win and you have the rest of your night to relax and enjoy the win. This was the shortest game of the season for the Pirates with four minutes to spare. The previous shortest game? May 3’s 1-0 victory over the Reds pitched by none other than Braxton Ashcraft. Yeah, he’s making a fan out of me with more than one way. A two hour win in the dog days of August with the way this team has been playing recently? Sign me up all day for that.
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