The Pirates are now winners of five straight games, and have moved to 6-3 on the year early in this season. They also complete a sweep of the Orioles and according to Joe Block, this is the first three-game sweep of Baltimore since 1983. The team is riding high after yet another high-scoring affair and backed by dominant pitching. Before the Pirates welcome in the Padres Monday, let’s talk about three takeaways from the win on Easter Sunday.
Braxton Ashcraft = 2nd Best Pitcher on this Staff
Many assumed going into the year that Braxton Ashcraft would be a distant third behind Bubba Chandler and Konnor Griffin for best young player on the roster. However, two starts in and Ashcraft has been making noise for being arguably the second best starter in the Pirates rotation behind Skenes. Today, Braxton followed up an impressive 6.0 innings and 2-run performance in Cincinnati with 8 strikeouts and 1 run over 6.0 innings. He generated 9 whiffs and found particular success with his fastball and slider combination. Over his first 81 innings as a major league starter, Ashcraft has posted an ERA of 2.25, and I think that has gone under the radar. Everyone knows that he is good but I don’t know if we’ve clocked that he is sub-3 ERA good. He doesn’t get any national attention whatsoever and that needs to change. In only 10 career starts in the Majors, he’s establishing himself as our number 2 or 3 starter and potentially even better than Chandler.
I Will Defend Oneil Cruz til My Dying Breath
Oneil Cruz clubbed his National League leading fourth home run of the season today, an absolute nuke to the center field ivy off yet another lefty pitcher. He also got the scoring started when he hit a ball 112 MPH off poor Chris Bassitt in the 2nd inning. Cruz has come under a lot of fire early in the season after the Opening Day debacle where he dropped two easy fly balls to end Paul Skenes‘ day early. Since then, all he has done has mash the baseball, even against his former foe left-handed pitching. He is now 7-for-10 with three home runs against lefties this season, and even if he regresses to league average against them, he is a special player.
Cruz is the most controversial player because he has the highest highs of a total superstar and the lowest lows of bad defensive plays. As it stands, Cruz has posted an OPS of 1.054, he leads the NL in home runs, and is one of the largest contributors to the current Pirates win streak. I will forever want him on this team because he is a human highlight reel, and I genuinely believe that he will be a much better player when he isn’t the only other human with a pulse in the lineup with Bryan Reynolds. I cannot believe I saw people saying that he should be DFA’d after the Mets series.
Ryan O’Hearn = Cherington’s Russell Martin
Ryan O’Hearn has been playing like a man possessed in his first nine games as a Pirate. He is slugging at a cool .700 and his OPS is over 1.100. There have been at least three games that have been won off of his bat and he is almost constructed in a lab to be the perfect Pittsburgh Pirate.
Today was no exception, coming in clutch with yet another home run in the first inning and an RBI double in the 2nd inning to put the game out of reach for the O’s. Like Russell Martin, Ryan was the first multiyear free agent bat the Pirates had signed in ages as an indication they were ready to be serious. They were clear leaders in the clubhouse and both clearly wanted to be in Pittsburgh, which is a rarity for many free agents. O’Hearn has been so dominant early this season that I have no choice but to write about him a second time in these takeaways. O’Hearn is a fan favorite who is going to remembered for a long time if these Pirates teams of the next two seasons are successful. He is also tracking to be the biggest free agent steal of the offseason, because even 75% of this production on O’Hearn’s contract is a huge steal any way you slice it. He could’ve let the full time move to right field bother him and instead he has come in and played at an all star level who I will be voting for to start this year.
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