Pirates Rookie Continues Recent Dominance

This marked the third staright start for Ashcraft, as he's spent the majority of 2025 with the Pirates in a bulk reliever role, coming in for longer outings later on.

He made his most recent start vs. the Chicago Cubs in the series opener at Wrigley Field on Aug. 15. Ashcraft threw 61 pitches over five innings, both previous career-highs, allowing just three hits and one earned run, while posting four strikeouts in a no-decision, which the Pirates eventually won 3-2.

Ashcraft also started vs. the Cincinnati Reds at PNC Park on Aug. 9, throwing 3.1 innings, allowing three hits, a walk, a hit batter, an earned run and posting a career-high five strikeouts in a no-decision.

He has 16 appearances out of the bullpen with the Pirates, but started 69 of his 71 outings in the minor leagues. Ashcraft sees this outing vs. the Rockies, plus his other two, as showing that he's getting better at performing in that starting role at the MLB level.

"Yeah, I think there's a fine line between comfort and pitching with just intent," Ashcraft said. "I think those two things also go hand in hand, but for me, starting is a comfortable role. It's something that I've done consistently throughout my entire life. So it was nice to go out and throw, especially in the big leagues, in the starter role. Again, it's just about getting quick outs and capitalizing on opportunities right now at this point in the season.

Pirates manager Don Kelly loved Ashcraft's pitch mix and that he's seen that improvement in that starting role, with this performance as another statement.

"He did," Kelly said. "And you talk about being able to throw anything in any count, being able to mix things up, I think he got behind a couple of times on 1-0, 2-0 and was able to command it. Curveball looked really good. Obviously, he had the fastball rolling as well." 

While Ashcraft dominated in his outing, so too did right-handed pitcher Bubba Chandler, who threw four scoreless innings of relief for a save in his MLB debut, becoming the first pitcher in MLB history to do so.

The two players have experience pitching together in Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis and Chandler now has that bulk reliever role that Ashcraft has. Chandler watched Ashcraft's outing with intent and used that to make MLB history.

“Me and Braxton have pretty similar repertoires, so I was watching pretty closely on the TV out there," Chandler said. "OK, what works for what guy. They struggle with this, struggle with that. It was kind of, I won’t say easy, but Braxton with the way he is and the way his stuff plays, we’re similar a little bit so I had a little more calmness and readiness going into the game. If I throw this one here and here, they’re going to have a tough time.”

Both Ashcraft and Chandler serve as great options for a potentially top starting rotation for the Pirates next season. This also includes All-Star Paul Skenes, veteran Mitch Keller, Johan Oviedo and fellow rookie Mike Burrows, plus Jared Jones when he recovers from his internal brace surgery and left-handed pitching prospect Hunter Barco.

The Pirates also have a strong bullpen, which features Isaac Mattson, Dennis Santana, long reliever Carmen Mlodzinski, making for one of the better pitching corps in baseball for the future.

Ashcraft understands how good this rotation and pitching staff as a whole for the Pirates could be going forward and that it helps that each pitcher, themselves, is willing to do whatever it takes to make their fellow teammates get better every single day.

“Some really good stuff," Ashcraft said on the future of the Pirates pitching staff. "It’s exciting to come in every day and work with each other and pick each other’s brains. Just become better baseball players. This is a really hard game and there’s a lot of noise, internally and externally, and the trick to all that is quieting it down and just understanding that pitcher’s mound is still 60 feet, six inches from home, the bases are still 90 feet.

"It’s the same game and just simplifying it down to that and working on our craft together and leaning on each other’s experiences and everything like that. It’s cool to have the relationship we all do with each other. To be able to trust that what we all want what’s absolutely best for each other and that makes for a winning culture, a culture that you just are excited to get to the field and be a part of. So looking forward to, not just 2026, but the years to come. I think that we’re going to be in a really good spot.”