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Braxton Ashcraft had another strong start for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who completed a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins with a 9-3 win at PNC Park on Sunday afternoon.
Scoring Plays
Bottom 2nd, 2-0 PIT: In his first at-bat off the injured list, Ryan O’Hearn ripped a solo home run to right field off Zebby Matthews (1-3). Later in the inning, the Pirates (32-28) tacked on another on Jared Triolo’s RBI single to right.
Bottom 3rd, 4-0 PIT: Nick Gonzales belted his first home run of the season, a two-run shot off Matthews that landed in the bullpens in center field.
Bottom 5th, 9-0 PIT: The Pirates erupted for five runs off Matthews and reliever Mike Paredes, who was making his MLB debut. Brandon Lowe ripped an RBI single to right to start things off. With the bases loaded, Oneil Cruz drew a walk to push across another run and Jake Mangum followed with a sacrifice fly to center. Henry Davis capped off the big inning with a two-run single to left.
Top 6th, 9-2 PIT: Brooks Lee got the Twins (27-33) on the board with a two-run home run to right field off Braxton Ashcraft (5-2).
Bottom 9th, 9-3 PIT: Lee connected on his second home run of the game, a solo homer to right off Brandan Bidois.
Key Moment
Nick Gonzales’ two-run home run snapped a stretch of 412-homerless at-bats. It was the second-longest active drought in MLB, behind the Rays’ Chandler Simpson, who entered Sunday’s game with 629 at-bats without a home run.
Player of the Game
Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft struck out a career-high 11 batters in six-strong innings. He went at least six innings in each of his six starts in May and closed the month with a 1.99 ERA.
Stat to Know
Braxton Ashcraft is the first Pirate and one of 11 major leaguers during the Modern ERA (since 1901) with at least 11 strikeouts and zero walks in an outing of 80 or fewer pitches.
Notable Performances
- Braxton Ashcraft: 6.0 innings, five hits, two runs, no walks, 11 strikeouts, 80 pitches/60 strikes
- Ryan O’Hearn: 2 for 4, one home run, one RBI, one run
- Nick Gonzales: 1 for 3, one home run, two RBI, one run, one walk
- Henry Davis: 1 for 3, two RBI, one walk
Noteworthy
- Braxton Ashcraft ended his start ranked seventh in the National League with a 2.77 ERA and third in strikeouts with 81.
- Nick Gonzales’ home run was his first since last season on July 28 against the San Francisco Giants.
- The Pirates reinstated OF/1B Ryan O’Hearn from the 10-day injured list and placed SS Konnor Griffin on the 10-day IL with a right elbow strain.
- The Pirates placed RHP Carmen Mlodzinski on the restricted list and recalled RHP Cam Sanders from Triple-A Indianapolis.
Up Next
The Pirates are off on Monday and will start a three-game series against the Astros in Houston on Tuesday night. RHP Bubba Chandler (1-6, 4.85 ERA) will start for Pittsburgh opposite former Pirate RHP Mike Burrows (3-6, 5.40 ERA). First pitch: 8:10 p.m. ET.
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The post BROOMS: Pirates Complete Sweep of Twins; Ashcraft Caps off Stellar Month appeared first on Pittsburgh Baseball Now.
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