PITTSBURGH (AP) — Paul Skenes stood at his locker in a near-silent Pittsburgh clubhouse on Thursday after a four-game home sweep at the hands of St. Louis and offered a prediction when asked if he was confident things wouldn't snowball on a Pirates team still finding its way.
“I think we'll be alright,” the reigning NL Cy Young winner offered.
Less than 72 hours later, the vibes had shifted significantly. Three very different kinds of wins in three
days over a division rival trying to have a breakout season of its own will do that.
As Big Sean blared from the speakers following a taut 1-0 win over Cincinnati on Sunday that completed a weekend sweep of the Reds and put the Pirates safely back over .500 heading into a six-game road swing through Arizona and San Francisco, the mood was considerably lighter.
Resiliency hasn't exactly been a calling card of a franchise that hasn't reached the playoffs in over a decade. And while five long months remain, the Pirates believe they are better equipped to navigate the ups and downs than they've been in a long while.
Mitch Keller, the longest-tenured player on the team who has been one of the few mainstays during a methodical organizational overhaul, could sense that confidence when he showed up for work on Friday.
“We were just kind of ‘screw it, we lost five in a row, whatever, we'll get them again tomorrow,'" Keller said.
And they did. Keller scattered three hits over seven innings and catcher Henry Davis homered twice in a 9-1 victory. On Saturday, Pittsburgh's offense worked 11 walks and poured in a season-high 17 runs in another blowout.
Things were considerably tenser on Sunday as Braxton Ashcraft and Reds rookie right-hander Chase Burns matched each other over seven innings. The difference was in the details.
Pittsburgh's defense made the plays that mattered. Second baseman Brandon Lowe stretched every inch of his 5-foot-9 frame to rob JJ Bleday in the sixth, snagging a line drive that could have scored TJ Friedl from second if it had landed safely in the outfield.
The Reds put runners on second and third with one out in the eighth when Ashcraft induced Cincinnati second baseman Matt McClain to hit a chopper to third. Pittsburgh third baseman Nick Gonzales threw a dart to Joey Bart at home to easily cut down Spencer Steer at the plate and keep the game tied.
Pirates manager Don Kelly then slowly made his way to the mound to pull Ashcraft after 7 2/3 masterful innings. The 26-year-old had thrown just 82 pitches and yeah, there was a part of Ashcraft that was frustrated when he saw Kelly emerge from the dugout and pull him in favor of lefty reliever Gregory Soto.
The crowd rose to give Ashcraft a loud ovation as he finished the best start of his young career. What they didn't see was Ashcraft walk down the steps and briefly out of sight to have what he called “my moment of frustration.”
It was, however, just a moment. By the time Ashcraft returned to the dugout railing, he'd already moved on. Having Soto strike out Friedl on a full-count sweeper that Bart scooped out of the dirt helped.
“It’s one of those things, if I don’t give up a double to Friedl earlier in the game, there’s probably a different situation,” Ashcraft said matter-of-factly, later adding, “the only person to blame is myself.”
Of course, “blame” might be overstating it. Ashcraft bounced back from his worst start of the season in a loss to the Cardinals on Tuesday by keeping the Reds in check while dropping his ERA to 3.02.
In most places, that kind of number would firmly put Ashcraft in the top end of the rotation. It's not that way in Pittsburgh, where Skenes is arguably the best pitcher in the game, Keller is the reliable veteran, and Bubba Chandler the high-profile former first-round pick.
It took Ashcraft, a second-round selection out of high school in 2018, seven long years to reach the majors. His quiet demeanor on the mound belies the fire underneath it and the stuff that comes with it.
“He throws it unbelievably hard,” Keller said. “He's the ultimate competitor. When he can just lock in and do what he did today, it's pretty amazing.”
Pittsburgh's offense eventually figured it out in the eighth, with rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin right in the middle of it, as is becoming a habit as he nears a full month in the majors. Griffin doubled off the wall in center with two outs, then raced home with the go-ahead run on a line-drive single by Oneil Cruz.
Asked if he had wanted to stretch that double into a triple, Griffin nodded while also offering a humble brag that happens to be true for the 20-year-old who signed a franchise-record-setting contract three weeks ago.
“With my speed, being able to score from second, it’s about the same odds as scoring from third,” Griffin said.
Griffin was right. A couple of minutes later, he was sliding head-first across home plate. A few minutes after that, Jake Mangum made a running catch at the leftfield wall to finish off a sweep and alleviate concerns — external ones anyway — that Pittsburgh's promising start was a mirage. Not that any such concerns exist internally.
“To lose four games in a row -- five if you go back to Milwaukee -- it just shows that we’re a different clubhouse this year,” Griffin said. "We’re not going to lay down. We’re just going to keep grinding and competing every day.”
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