The Pittsburgh Pirates enter their weekend set with the Los Angeles Angels knowing exactly where the edge should come from: the rotation.
At PNC Park, Pittsburgh will line up Jared Jones on Sept. 4, Braxton Ashcraft on Sept. 5 and Paul Skenes on Sept. 6 to finish out the club’s six-game homestand. The Angels, meanwhile, are slated to counter with Ryan Johnson in the opener, Walbrecht Ureña in the middle game and Yusei Kukuchi in the finale.
Jones’ assignment was pushed back a day. He had originally been lined up for the Sept. 3 series finale against the San Francisco Giants, but the Pirates gave him extra rest and went with a bullpen game instead. That decision paid off in a 5-2 win, with five pitchers combining to hold the Giants to two hits over nine innings, including three innings from rookie right-hander Khristian Curtis.
For Jones, the added day comes at a useful time. August was rough on the right-hander: a 0-4 record in five starts, a 7.40 ERA across 20.2 innings, 25 strikeouts against 12 walks, a .318 batting average allowed and a 1.94 WHIP. Among pitchers with at least 20 innings last month, he finished tied for the second-highest WHIP, fourth-highest BAA and sixth-highest ERA.
His most recent start came Aug. 28 against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, where he struck out six but allowed seven hits, three runs and a two-run home run in a 4-1 loss.
Ashcraft has been the sharpest arm in the Pirates’ rotation lately, and August made that clear. In six starts, he went 4-1 with a 2.13 ERA over 38.0 innings, piling up 29 strikeouts with only five walks, while holding hitters to a .176 average and posting a 0.74 WHIP.
Those numbers put him among the month’s best across the league. He logged the second-most innings pitched, tied for the third-most wins, had the fifth-lowest BB/9 at 1.18, ranked 10th in K/BB at 5.88 and finished 15th in ERA.
Ashcraft already authored one complete game against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park on Aug. 13 and nearly matched it against the Detroit Tigers at PNC Park on Aug. 18, when he got through eight innings. His last outing was another winning effort against the Cardinals on Aug. 30, when he gave up a few hits and two runs in the fifth but still came away with a 5-4 victory.
He is also working well past his previous workload. Ashcraft’s 160.1 innings are a career high and rank 14th in baseball this season, and the Pirates are keeping his injury history in mind even as his results make him tough to pull from the rotation.
Then there is Skenes, who gets a first look at a team he grew up rooting for in Lake Forest, Calif. The Angels are one of the last clubs he has yet to face; the only teams remaining on that list are the Athletics, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers.
Skenes is trying to bounce back from a rough outing against the Giants on Sept. 1.
He gave up five runs in the second inning, including a three-run homer to Rafael Devers, and finished with eight hits and three walks allowed over 4.2 innings on 95 pitches. His command was off from the start, and he said he never found it, including with his four-seam fastball, which the Giants made him pay for.
That start came after six scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Aug. 25, but the stretch of uneven results has now gone on for almost four months.
Against an Angels lineup described as one of the worst-hitting groups in baseball, the Pirates have a clear opening for their starters to set the tone and carry the series.
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