PIRATES

Braxton Ashcraft started as an opener for the Pirates tonight, lasting 3 1/3 innings, throwing 37 of his 56 pitches for strikes and allowing one earned run on three hits, a walk and five strikeouts in a one-run loss.

Before the game, Don Kelly talked about Ashcraft’s success with his breaking pitches and a need to command his fastball. Then, in the first inning, Ashcraft struggled to locate his four-seam fastball on three of the first four pitches of the game, walking TJ Friedl to lead off the game. Ashcraft would then throw nine more fastballs over the remaining 52 pitches as he relied heavily on his slider and curveball to keep the Reds to one run. With his slider, he generated five whiffs on 12 swings. 

"He did a nice job. First inning, looked like he was spraying it a little bit in the beginning," Kelly said. "The fastball command wasn't there. But he slowed it down, dialed it back in. The slider was really effective for him." 

After the game, Ashcraft spoke at length about his desire to be a starter: "You know, as pitchers and especially as young pitchers in our career, I think the objective should always be to be a starter and for me, having done that my entire career, that’s always been the goal, but again, it just boils down to, can you go out and get outs efficiently, can you control the controllables, can you control the running game well, can you minimize damage, can you do all those things and do them well and whenever opportunities present themselves, you take advantage of them and that’s been my goal through this entire time I’ve been in the big leagues. Just when opportunities arise, take advantage of them and pitch my way in the first through the ninth. That’s the goal. You want to be the highlight of your situations or do you want to be a starter and for me, I think that, with the early stages of my career, having done that and one that pretty well. I don’t think it’s out of the question and it’s just more opportunities present themselves and take advantage of them."