Ashcraft

PITTSBURGH — After splitting time between the Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation and the team’s bullpen in his first full season with the Bucs last year, Braxton Ashcraft has blossomed in a full-time starting role this season.

Entering his final start before the all-star break tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park, the 6-foot-5, 218-pound right-hander leads the Pirates’ rotation with a 9-3 record and 3.24 earned run average.

Ashcraft, a 26-year-old native of the Waco, Tex. suburb of Robinson, also holds the staff lead in strikeouts (122), innings pitched (108.1), and quality starts (10) of at least six innings pitched and three earned runs or less surrendered.

That is the case despite the fact that Paul Skenes — the reigning National League’s 2025 Cy Young Award winner and 2024 National League Rookie of the Year ­– is also a member of the Pirates’ rotation.

A perfectionist with a tireless work ethic, Ashcraft still pinpointed at least one needed area of improvement for himself during a recent interview with the media at PNC Park.

“I think that, as a whole, my season has been really good,” said Ashcraft, who was selected by the Pirates in the second round of the 2018 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. “But there have been a few games that have bit me in the butt.

“I think that the biggest (need for improvement) is in my two-strike pitches and my two-strike execution in general,” Ashcraft added. “I haven’t had a game this year where I’ve looked at it as a whole and said that my stuff is really bad that day, or anything along those lines.”

But successfully executing some two-strike situations on the mound is still a work in progress for Ashcraft.

“I had a (recent) game against the (Philadelphia) Phillies where they hit three two-strike home runs,” Ashcraft said. “I think that’s what I reflect most on through the first half of this season — just getting better at making better pitches in better counts.

“That’s part of growing up out there — ensuring that when you’re in the driver’s seat in the count, you don’t allow (a batter) to get back (ahead) in the count and give him a chance to beat you, because you have a little bit more leeway there.”

Despite a subpar 7-8 record this season after snapping a personal nine-game winless streak this past Tuesday night, Skenes was originally selected as the Pirates’ lone representative in the 2026 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which will be played this upcoming Tuesday night at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park.

But because Skenes is scheduled to pitch against the Milwaukee Brewers ace right-hander Jacob Misiorowski Sunday, neither will be eligible to take the mound two days later in the all-star game, creating an opening for Ashcraft.

A very strong argument could be made for Ashcraft being picked for the all-star game in the initial selection process.

“He’s very deserving of this, and hopefully, it’s just the first of many for him,” Pirates first baseman and right fielder Ryan O’Hearn said of Ashcraft. “He’s taken the ball (successfully) every fifth day for us, and he’s been a horse this season.”

Ashcraft is relishing the opportunity to be part of the game that has been long known as the Midsummer Classic.

“It’s a really cool opportunity — it’s cool to be recognized by your peers in the league to represent your team in that situation,” Ashcraft said. “It’s something that every kid dreams about in baseball. At the same time, I would be remiss looking around this clubhouse if I didn’t say that there are a few other guys who are deserving of it who haven’t been selected.

“It’s the first one for me, so it’s the biggest,” Ashcraft added. “I think that just being able to pick the brains of some of the guys who have been around the league for so long, to have an opportunity to learn a little bit more about the game from those guys who have walked a few more miles in those shoes, and to find different ways of going about my work and getting better (are the most important things).”

Ashcraft said that communicating with teammates — presumably Skenes and veteran right-hander Mitch Keller — has been one of the biggest factors in his quantum leap in development as a pitcher this year.

“Being able to have conversations with (teammates) on a day-to-day basis, whether you’re experiencing failure or success at the time, has been so vital,” Ashcraft said. “All of us can be our own best coaches.”

Ashcraft became the first pitcher in Pirates history this year to record multiple games in a single season featuring 10 or more strikeouts while not walking a single batter. He had an 11-strikeout, zero walk outing against the Minnesota Twins on May 31, and a 10-strikeout performance against the Seattle Mariners in June.

Ashcraft was the winning pitcher in both those games, working six innings in both. He enjoyed a fabulous month of May with a 4-0 record and 1.99 ERA across six starts, completing at least six innings in all of those starts.

He said that despite his success this season, he hasn’t made any adjustments to his pitching style.

“I have tried to work on a changeup, but it’s still a work in progress,” Ashcraft said.

Ashcraft married his wife Cassidy last December and the couple are expecting their first child, a baby girl, in the coming months. Ashcraft has known his wife since the two were in kindergarten together, and they both graduated from Robinson High School in 2018.

Along with being a baseball star at Robinson High, Ashcraft also made his mark in the school and Texas state record books as a wide receiver on the football team, with his height creating matchup headaches for defenders. As a senior in the 2017 season, Ashcraft caught seven touchdown passes in a game — coming up just one short of tying the Texas state high school record in that category.

With his attention turned completely to baseball now, Ashcraft is thrilled to be a member of a Pirates team that has a chance to reach the postseason for the first time since 2015.

“It’s pretty exciting to get to the clubhouse every day and to be playing for something (meaningful) that is within arm’s reach — that being October baseball,” Ashcraft said. “Everybody here is fighting for that, and everybody here has the same goal.

“Everybody here is pulling on the same rope, and the force is pretty strong.”

The Ashcraft file

Age: 26.

Hometown: Robinson, Tex. — a suburb of Waco.

Acquired: The Pirates picked Ashcraft in the second round of the 2018 MLB draft.

Season update: Ashcraft leads the Bucs with a 9-3 record and 122 strikeouts in 108.1 innings pitched.

Personal: Ashcraft married his wife Cassidy last December and the couple are expecting their first child, a baby girl, in the coming months.