And welcome into the Pirates Insider Show podcast. I am your host, Jason Mackey, talking to you on a Wednesday morning after the Pirates and the Cubs played the second game of their series at PNC Park, and you may or may not know the outcome of that game, and it was a very good one for the Pirates. 12-1. The victory goes to Pittsburgh. Want to talk about a bunch of different things here, but I'm going to start with the big picture sort of ramifications of this win and some storylines that I think are worth talking about. How the Pirates have fared in the NL Central. And don't worry, we will get into a lot of the inside of the game because we saw a lot of things over the course of this game that were very, very interesting. But I feel compelled to start kind of bigger picture because of where we're at with this team. Right now, the Pirates, they're 29 and 26. They're faring very well against the NL Central. And that's not to say anything of the poor Chicago Cubs. And the Cubs, it's not great. But we're not going to talk about that all that much. The Pirates so far, they've won five of six series against the NL Central. They can win a sixth on Wednesday. Last year, you may see where I'm going with this. They won four all of last year. It's been very good for the Pirates. And I my takeaway from this game, one of my biggest takeaways, you're seeing the ingredients to a very good team. And what I mean by that is you have an offense that once again scored runs. That's been a consistent theme this season. The Pirates have shown themselves capable of scoring runs. If we go and look right now, and there's obviously some games in progress, the Pirates are at 270 runs. That's fifth most in Major League Baseball. Very, very good. They're giving themselves a chance to win. I know there have been issues with hitting and runners and scoring, hitting with runners and scoring position, all of that. But some total, they're scoring runs. Can't really get upset about that. All right, so let's start to delve a little bit into what we saw against the Cubs tonight. And the transition I'm making there, of course, is starting pitching. Braxton Ashcraft, it baffles me that not more people are talking about what this young man is doing. He was fantastic tonight. Six and third, six and a third innings, gave up one earned run, seven hits, one walk, five strikeouts, threw 95 pitches, 71 for strikes. I love the way that Braxton Ashcraft pitches. As a former pitcher, I appreciate it so much how much he's willing to attack guys. He throws strikes, he trusts his stuff, he gets ahead early. When we talk to Braxton Ashcraft, and oh, by the way, this was his one-year anniversary of making his MLB debut. It's kind of crazy to think about given how mature he is, both in talking to us and his approach on the mound. Right now, Braxton Ashcraft, his ERA this season, by the way, 275. Only 13 in Major League Baseball have been better. He struck out 70. That's 12th most in the major leagues. But first pitch strikes, getting ahead. He threw first pitch strikes to 25 of the 29 hitters he faced, 86%. Yeah, pretty good. Ashcraft's quote, it's a lot easier to pitch when you're pitching ahead. That's been a big point of emphasis throughout my career. Yeah, yeah, and it's been good. It's been good. Another thing we saw from Ashcraft in this one, he's throwing his slider a lot more. And this has been a developing trend over the past couple of games. When the Pirates were in St. Louis, I actually pulled Ashcraft aside to talk to him a little bit about this because we saw him use his curveball a lot early in the year. And it turns out there's a reason for that. He was using his curveball. It was a point of emphasis for him over the winter. He wanted to use it, he's really practiced with it, and that felt like his best breaking ball. Well, as the season has gone on, the slider, which has kind of always been there for Ashcraft, and that's what he told me, that he just has so much confidence in it that it just kind of finds its way into his usage patterns. Well, he's throwing a lot of them now. He threw 41% sliders against the Cubs. And I it's just it's almost unfair how good he is spinning the ball. And when he's pitching ahead with two breaking balls, a really good fastball. Like this kid is outstanding. So again, my original point, I started big picture talking about this is the type of game where you can start to see some things kind of come together. The starting pitching is the foundation. And that's what manager Don Kelly said after this one. Said a bunch of things. He's proud of how the guys finished up the Toronto series, got a win on Sunday, came back here, won two different games at PNC Park. But pitching, starting pitching has been the foundation. And it was that way again tonight. But it's also only part of the story. We saw a lot more. Want to talk about that offense, right? Can't help but talk about scoring a dozen runs. Well, how the Pirates did it, I think, warrants a bigger discussion. And let's start at the top because that was the most interesting part of this game to me. The decision that the Pirates made putting Connor Griffin atop the lineup. And it was time. O'Neal Cruz kind of struggling a little bit. Ben Charrington talked on the Pirates Insider show about, you know, getting him off his feet a little bit and do and changing some things for O'Neill Cruz. Well, they drop him into the number five spot, and it, I think it's leading to some good things. We're seeing Cruz have much better at bats, which is a story in itself. I'll get there. But I don't want to get off the track of talking about Griffin and what an impact player he was atop the lineup. Two separate incidents from this one to highlight. Griffin draws a leadoff walk, then goes first to third on Brandon Lau's single. You could see the impact of the game. You could see him making the Chicago Cubs uncomfortable. That was part of it. Griffin ends up scoring a run. The Pirates score five in the first. Very big thing, right? Well, later in the game, Brian Reynolds hits a ground ball to Alex Bregman at third. This is in the sixth inning. You see Connor Griffin, who was on second base. He scores. He exploded from second base. I mean, his speed is so blatantly obvious. I mean, obviously the speed doesn't matter if you can't get on base, right? But he's been doing that. He's been getting on base. He's been hitting. He's been doing everything that you would possibly want a leadoff hitter to do. It's about time. I love seeing him atop the lineup. I'm fishing for his numbers right now, but since his birthday, we keep bringing up that 20th birthday because it's been an interesting marking point. He's hitting over 300. He's hugely productive. Since that game, 311 with 10 extra base hits, 12 RBIs, 9 walks, 8 steals, and 19 runs score. That was going into tonight. I thought Connor Griffin had a very big impact on the game, and I would like to see them keep him atop the lineup. Brandon Lau, a couple more hits. He's been really good. Thought it was interesting at one point in the broadcast, Greg Brown pointed out how good Brandon Lau has been against lefties. Now, kind of a special matchup tonight with uh Mr. Wicks, his first name, just uh I wanted to call him Justin Wicks, Jordan Wicks. Uh, but he was at like 368 in May. Pretty impressive. And I think we're seeing that with usage patterns and Brandon Lau, Donnie Kelly keeping him in there against lefties. But as we go through the lineup, Lau in the two-hole, Brian Reynolds with a couple big hits, two doubles in this one, scores two runs, knocks in two runs. Nick Gonzalez, two more hits. He continues to drive in runs. And O'Neill Cruz, we're back to that, and let's pause for a second because he had a three-hit night. The at bats look much better. And he, these numbers are funny. He is absolutely crushing the Cubs this season. Right now, O'Neal Cruz against the Cubs in 2026. He's hitting 6'11. That's 11 for 18. He has a home run and six steals. Stole a base tonight. That's just funny. I don't know if he's going to hit 6'11 for the season, but I'll take it every time. But I talked about him being in the number five spot and maybe the leadoff spot not being quite where the Pirates want to go with this. And again, I they have different options. I thought it was an interesting choice to put hor to put Connor Griffin there because they had used Spencer Horowitz in the leadoff spot. And I have absolutely no problem with Spencer Horwitz. Maybe I'll get their names correct. With Spencer Horowitz taken at bats from the leadoff spot, gives you a professional at bats, sees a lot of pitches, sets the table for other people, gets on base. He's been excellent this month, by the way. Another number that was in my analysis piece, you can read on mlb.com, Spencer Horwitz in May, a 946 OPS. That's the 11th highest in Major League Baseball. I want to talk about somebody who's been overlooked. Not so much Braxton Ashcraft, but on the hitting side, Spencer Horwitz. We don't appreciate enough what he's doing. But dropping O'Neal Cruz down to the fifth spot has worked out well for the Pirates. They continue to score runs, lengthens the lineup a little bit. Still have a concern with Marcelo Zuna, who hit sixth. He did go one for five, got a hit late, drove in a run. And then let's stop on our guy as Marilyn Valdez. How about this youngster? Boy, if the Pirates wanted and needed somebody like this to really put a foot down in the outfield. Homer's in the first inning. An impressive shot, too, by the way. I mean, I was impressed by his home run in Toronto, his ability to muscle that out. Certainly nothing to ignore. I liked it, but he gets a slider, it's middle away, takes it 415 feet to center field, puts it in the bullpen, ends up giving the Pirates a 5-0 lead. And at that point, you sort of look at the way that things are gone for the Cubs. And not that, you know, anybody's counting their chickens at that point, but that's a strong first inning. And a credit to the Pirates, they kept adding on. Very impressive. Valdez, by the way, just the seventh pirate now in the modern era that's since 1901 to Homer twice in his first four MLB games. Austin Meadows in 2018 was the last to do it. And before that, Dr. Strange Glove, Dick Stewart in 1958 turned that one over. But I love seeing as Marilyn Valdez want to see more of him in right field, adding a power component. The Pirates have that they've needed. And I it I asked Don Kelly about this post-game and what performances like that do. And actually, in the back of my head, honestly, was my time as a hockey writer thinking about young players coming up and scoring goals and kind of how that just eases the strain for the Penguins. Right now, the Pirates are getting some surprise contributions. You might expect Connor Griffin to do something, but as Marilyn Valdez, hey, we'll take it, man. It's one less thing the veterans have to do. And so Donnie Kelly kind of talked about that and the impact and the positivity that these young guys are bringing. And let's just stop and think about all of the rookies slash younger players on the Pirates doing some good things. And again, they went out this offseason. They added some great veterans. Love what Ryan O'Hearn's brought. Brandon Lau, uh, Gregory Soto in the bullpen, whatever. Marcelo Zuna, I know the performance is lacked, but he's been impactful in the clubhouse, whatever. Brian Reynolds has been around for a while. Spencer Horwitz is a quality veteran. It's not a super young clubhouse, but the guys they are entrusting with opportunities at the major league level are taking them and running with them. Talking about Connor Griffin, talking about Valdez, talking about this got kind of buried. Brandon Bedouil was excellent. Got five key outs in this game, stranded Braxton Ashcraft's runners. Young rotation. I mean, it's crazy to think that Paul Skeens is as young as he is and doing what he's doing. And same thing with Braxton. But there's a bunch of younger players on this roster contributing, even Joe Stinson Garcia. The Pirates' rookie class this season has been very good, but my overall point is younger players taking turns, kind of driving the bus, and what that means for the older players on the roster. So as we wind this episode down, that's what I'm thinking of. That's where my brain is at, where this team, we're starting to see some signs of this coming together. I know this wasn't, you know, a heavy-duty bullpen game, didn't require a lot out of the bullpen, but you know, the fact that the bullpen, I think, can't it can be a lot better. It should be a lot better. That's certainly been a weak spot for the team thus far. But if you're gonna score a lot of runs, if the starting pitching's gonna be good, if you're able to hold those leads, I mean, my goodness, that's the makings of a team that has not gotten hot yet. They haven't. The Pirates this month and really all season, just kind of bobbing. There are three wins in a row now. They won two in a row in St. Louis, a bunch of ones. They swept the Reds at the beginning of the month. But that's kind of it. We haven't seen this team put it all together for an extended stretch. And I look at the Cubs, they're down and almost out. The twins should be beatable. The Astros aren't the Astros of previous years. The Braves are really good. But what do you say? You get a series here against the Cubs, get another one against the Twins, go to Houston, play well, get on a bit of a run. Who knows? Maybe a catch Atlanta and they cool off a little bit. Who knows? But I want to see if the Pirates can put this all together, can sustain it. Make sure you check that piece out at mlb.com. Thanks so much for listening. This has been the Pirates Insider Show Podcast. I'm Jason Mackey, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.