PIRATES

With a three-run lead intact before he even stepped foot on the mound here tonight at Sutter Health Park, Braxton Ashcraft felt a sense of comfortability once he was tasked with facing the opposing offense. 

"It makes pitching really easy," Ashcraft said following the Pirates' 12-4 win over the Athletics. "It makes being comfortable in the zone really easy and it makes throwing heaters in the zone really easy. Everything plays off of that." 

Ashcraft, who tends to maintain the same mentality regardless of the score, lauded his teammates for the offensive display and did his thing on the mound by registering his team-leading ninth quality start of the season. He allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits with three walks and seven strikeouts over his six strong innings. 

"I would prefer to be a little bit more efficient. There were a couple long at-bats and they have some guys over there who can really extend at-bats and make something happen and spoil really good pitches," Ashcraft said. "Looking at that and trying to identify ways to get guys out of the box earlier without damage is a pretty good way through. The efficiency, being able to cover six, it’s at the top of the priority list. Six is a minimum. Happy we were able to do that today." 

Ashcraft leaned on a 28% usage of his curveball, generating five of his 10 whiffs and finishing off four of his strikeouts with it. But there were heavy doses of his other three offerings, too. He threw his four-seam fastball at a 27% rate and went to his sinker 25% of the time and his slider 19% of the time. 

"Aside from a couple four-pitch walks, I felt like we did a really good job of leaning on the stuff that was playing really well, not straying from stuff whenever it was ball one or ball two, 3-2," said Ashcraft, who is now 6-3 with a 3.18 ERA and 1.10 WHIP over 15 starts this season. "Keeping the foot on the gas whenever we were in disadvantage counts and hitters’ counts. Just leaning on the strengths and letting guys behind me do the work."