Jason Mackey's nine observations: Pirates can't leverage strong start from Braxton Ashcraft in loss

CINCINNATI — Braxton Ashcraft’s face and subdued tone told the story of a frustrating Pirates loss.

Yes, he delivered six strong innings and threw 87 pitches, both career-highs at this level. But nobody was happy with the Pirates falling, 2-0, to the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Monday, Cincinnati pitchers displaying some nasty stuff and several Pirates hitters trying to do too much.

“It's always nice when your starter goes six innings,” Ashcraft said. “But ultimately, it doesn't matter. We want to get wins.”

The Pirates finished with four hits, all singles, and didn’t advance a runner to third base. They also walked five times, but the sum total was negated by 11 strikeouts.

As for Ashcraft, his curveball was sharp, and he used it to notch two of his three strikeouts. The right-hander allowed two earned runs on four hits with four walks in six innings, throwing 52 of his 87 pitches for strikes.

Isaac Mattson and Justin Lawrence followed with strong work in relief, but the lack of offense proved to be the story.

Here are my nine observations from the loss:

• Some guys look like they’re pressing. On his first-inning strikeout, Marcell Ozuna chased two sliders way out of the zone. Henry Davis did the same on a low slider in the fifth. With two on and nobody out in the ninth, Jared Triolo reached for a sweeper.

Reds pitchers, especially starter Chase Burns, were solid. But the Pirates (1-3) helped them out.

“We need to make sure we’re staying within ourselves and within the zone to get good pitches to hit,” manager Don Kelly said.

• The ninth-inning Triolo at-bat turned out to be a topic of conversation. Let’s address it.

Kelly stuck with Triolo because he wanted to attack Cincinnati’s bullpen, which isn’t exactly a strength. Save the out. Trust your guy to get a bit hit. Play for the win.

Obviously that didn’t happen.

Another route would’ve been having Triolo bunt, then either forcing the Reds to walk Spencer Horwitz or bring in lefty Sam Moll, who was warming. That could’ve prompted Kelly to counter with Joey Bart, who hits lefties well.

A third option would’ve been pinch-hitting Jake Mangum, but the removal of Triolo comes with defensive consequences; it likely would’ve been Nick Gonzales at shortstop and Nick Yorke at third if the game went to extra innings.

Kelly trusted Triolo to do something productive, and it didn’t happen. Triolo guessed heater and chased because he was trying too hard to have a positive impact. Here’s guessing if Triolo could do it over again, he’d probably take a strike in that situation first.

“I know he wasn’t landing a lot of things, but I took a chance 0-0,” Triolo said. “The 0-1 was my pitch to hit.”

• There are some disjointed offensive numbers right now for the Pirates. Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn are hitting a combined .433 (13 for 30), while Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, Marcell Ozuna and Spencer Horwitz are batting just .127 (7 for 55).

Those are the Pirates’ six best hitters. It’ll even out over time, and four games is way too small of a sample size. But it gets magnified when it comes at the beginning of the season.

“Lowe and O’Hearn have been really strong,” Kelly said. “We’re gonna need everybody to chip in. They certainly will. Especially early on, you start to feel the pressure. We just need them to stay within themselves and keep battling. We’ll come up with some big hits.”

• Speaking of O’Hearn, he extended his hitting streak — dating back to last year — to 13 games with a seventh-inning single. That’s the longest active streak in MLB.

• Ashcraft said he didn’t like the command or shape he had with either of his fastballs, but it looked just fine from up here.

The only damage came on a sacrifice fly, which allowed Ashcraft’s second walk to score, and right fielder Will Benson’s triple on a four-seamer that was intentionally up in the zone. Pitch was executed. Benson put a good swing on it.

“We've got a good defense,” Ashcraft said. “They make plays. Walks prevent them from doing that. Have to eliminate those.”

The leash Ashcraft was afforded also made sense. He’s earned it. He’s pitched well dating back to spring, when he had a 2.03 ERA in four starts. The 26-year-old keeps showing he can handle more, so why not give it to him?

• Chase Burns looked like the real deal, giving the Reds five scoreless innings and striking out seven. The Pirates struggled with his four-seamer and slider and whiffed 15 times altogether. Burns’ fastball averaged 98.3 mph.

“It was pretty dominant,” Triolo said.

• Hard to believe Nick Gonzales’ last stolen base prior to the one he had in the fifth came Sept. 9, 2024. The Pirates also became the last MLB team to attempt a steal this season.

• Henry Davis had another impressive defensive moment in the fourth inning, throwing out Elly De La Cruz when the Reds shortstop was trying to steal second base.

It was the second caught stealing this season for Davis, which leads the National League. Throw was a laser and went right into Gonzales’ glove.

• Monday marked the end of the Pirates’ streak of 64 consecutive games with at least one extra-base hit. It was the second-longest such streak in MLB behind the Athletics (83 games).

Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH.