In the Pirates' 8-2 win over the Orioles on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, Braxton Ashcraft tossed six innings, allowed one earned run on four hits, eight strikeouts and no walks for his second straight quality start to begin the season. Today's outing was more impressive with the command as he cutdown from four walks against the Mets to zero and ringing up Orioles when he had to make his pitches.
"We put in a lot of work over this last five days and it paid off," said Ashcraft. "That’s a testament to the people we have around us, like Bill Murphy and all the other guys we have watching every ‘pen and throwing program. Need to piggyback off their thoughts and how they see you move, and it really helps.”
Ashcraft threw 54 of his 87 pitches for strikes and didn't appear to be hunting the strikeouts.
"Strikeouts come when they come. If you’re searching for strikeouts, then that’s whenever the pitch count can get up there a little bit, when you’re nibbling," said Ashcraft. "For me, attacking the zone, suffocating them with strikes and letting the defense do their job."
Ashcraft extended the starting staff's run of allowing two or less earned runs to eight games and according to Sarah Langs, the starting rotation is the only one in MLB without a homer allowed, the longest streak by the Pirates to start a season since 1943 (17 games) and longest to start a season in MLB since 2018 Giants (10 games).
THE ASYLUM
Ashcraft: 'Suffocating them with strikes'
In the Pirates' 8-2 win over the Orioles on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, Braxton Ashcraft tossed six innings, allowed one earned run on four hits, eight strikeouts and no walks for his second straight quality start to begin the season. Today's outing was more impressive with the command as he cutdown from four walks against the Mets to zero and ringing up Orioles when he had to make his pitches.
"We put in a lot of work over this last five days and it paid off," said Ashcraft. "That’s a testament to the people we have around us, like Bill Murphy and all the other guys we have watching every ‘pen and throwing program. Need to piggyback off their thoughts and how they see you move, and it really helps.”
Ashcraft threw 54 of his 87 pitches for strikes and didn't appear to be hunting the strikeouts.
"Strikeouts come when they come. If you’re searching for strikeouts, then that’s whenever the pitch count can get up there a little bit, when you’re nibbling," said Ashcraft. "For me, attacking the zone, suffocating them with strikes and letting the defense do their job."
Ashcraft extended the starting staff's run of allowing two or less earned runs to eight games and according to Sarah Langs, the starting rotation is the only one in MLB without a homer allowed, the longest streak by the Pirates to start a season since 1943 (17 games) and longest to start a season in MLB since 2018 Giants (10 games).
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