Who Had the Upper Hand
Braxton Ashcraft pitched six strong innings, Endy Rodriguez drove in three runs and Ryan O’Hearn had three hits as the Pittsburgh Pirates routed the Seattle Mariners 11-1 on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh. In a game where the scoreboard did the talking, the Pirates controlled the terms and the Mariners were left taking the hit.
Ashcraft (7-3) struck out 10 without a walk while allowing one run and five hits. He became the first Pirates pitcher to have at least two starts in the same season with at least 10 strikeouts and zero walks since at least 1901. That kind of command turned the mound into a locked gate, with Seattle’s lineup shut out of any real leverage after the opening inning.
The Early Crack, Then the Collapse
The AL West-leading Mariners scored in the first when J.P. Crawford, Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez hit consecutive singles to begin the game. For a moment, Seattle put runners on and made noise. Then the machinery of the Pirates’ pitching settled in, and Ashcraft eventually retired the last 10 batters.
Bryan Woo (6-6) started with three hitless innings, then gave up five runs and six hits with four strikeouts and two walks. The shift came in the fourth inning, when Endy Rodriguez’s two-run double opened the scoring in a five-run frame against Woo as the Pirates went ahead 5-1. Tyler Callihan tripled home Rodriguez in the fourth, Jake Mangum and Esmerlyn Valdez followed with run-scoring singles, and Valdez later pinch-hit and delivered an RBI single after Pirates first baseman Spencer Horwitz left the game with left hamstring discomfort in the fourth inning.
Rodriguez also singled in a run in a four-run seventh that pushed the lead to 9-1. O’Hearn doubled twice, including one that drove in a pair in the seventh. Valdez and Nick Gonzales had two hits and Callihan had two RBIs. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched four scoreless innings for his second save.
What the Box Score Says About Power
The Mariners, despite being the AL West leaders, were reduced to a brief first-inning spark and then a long stretch of being handled by Pittsburgh’s arms. Rodriguez and Josh Naylor had two hits for the Mariners, but that was nowhere near enough to change the shape of the night.
Ashcraft’s line was the cleanest expression of control in the game: 10 strikeouts, no walks, one run, five hits. Woo’s line told the other side of the story: three hitless innings, then five runs and six hits as the Pirates widened the gap and kept it open. The result was not just a win, but a rout built on one side imposing its rhythm and the other failing to break it.
Mariners RHP Bryce Miller (3-1, 1.58) was set to start against RHP Bubba Chandler (2-7, 4.62) on Thursday in the series finale.