PITTSBURGH -- Braxton Ashcraft’s breakout season is still rolling, but the Pirates are clearly keeping one eye on the finish line.
By Saturday, Ashcraft had already blown past his previous career high in innings by nearly 50 frames, and the wear showed in the way Pittsburgh handled him in a 6-1 loss to the Angels at PNC Park. He worked only five innings and threw 67 pitches, his lowest pitch total of the year, as the Pirates continued to monitor his workload with the end of the 2026 season approaching.
“September, I don't think anybody's feeling fantastic, but I'm able to pitch,” Ashcraft said. “I want to pitch.
It’s just one of those things. I don't think you could ask anybody in the league if they feel great right now and they'd say ‘Yes.’
So yeah, I feel serviceable. Just focusing on recovery in between starts, prioritizing that and everything right now.
There's a little bit more emphasis on the recovery piece of things, but that's the long answer. The short answer is I feel fine.”
The right-hander was sharp early in his 28th start of the season. He needed just 34 pitches to get through the first three innings, striking out six and allowing only one hit. It looked like the Pirates might get another clean outing from a pitcher who has been one of their biggest bright spots this year.
Then the Angels started to chip away.
Wade Meckler’s bloop double opened the fourth, and Moisés Ballesteros followed with an RBI single to put Pittsburgh in a 1-0 hole. Ashcraft answered with his eighth strikeout of the game to end the inning, but the momentum had already started to tilt.
In the fifth, Josh Lowe hit a home run to make it 2-0, and Zach Neto added an RBI single later in the frame to push the lead to 3-0. Don Kelly said Ashcraft’s pitches appeared to rise in that inning, with his velocity down and his command less crisp.
“He’s not necessarily limited,” Kelly said of Ashcraft. “Just as we've talked about going through the year, understanding the amount of innings that he's thrown and just paying attention to where he's at throughout the game.”
Ashcraft said he can feel when things are a little off, but he’s leaving the decisions to the Pirates.
“The best I can do is tell them how I feel, and they make decisions on my behalf,” Ashcraft said. “And I support whatever they have in store and what their plans are.
I know that there's a more thought-out process behind that than me just saying I want to go out and pitch and compete. So, just kind of defer to that and tell them I'm good to go, if I'm good to go.
And if I'm not good to go, tell them I'm not good to go.”
The Pirates never led in the game and got their only run in the eighth, when Bryan Reynolds went deep for a solo homer.
Ashcraft’s season has still been a major success. He made his first All-Star team after a strong first half and kept it going into August, when he posted a 2.13 ERA in six outings and Pittsburgh went 5-1. But September has been a different story so far, and Ashcraft said the results sting.
“I executed a lot of pitches, but I got punished on the ones I didn't,” Ashcraft said. “That's kind of been the story of the year.
It's part of the game. A bunch of strikeouts, but I didn't put us in [position] to win the ballgame, so it eats at me a little bit.”
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