Pirates Insider Podcast, Episode 23 (6/17 vs. Athletics)

The Pirates offense had one of its biggest games of the year, erupting for a dozen runs to earn a series victory over the Athletics. What's up with Ryan O'Hearn? Could Marcell Ozuna's homer become the spark he has needed? Jason Mackey also discussed Braxton Ashcraft's outing and when we might see Konnor Griffin again.

Transcript

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What's up, everybody? This is the Pirates Insider Podcast. I'm Jason Mackey coming to you a little bit later today. We had travel from Sacramento to Denver, but here in Denver with the Pirates' victory in the series in the game yesterday, 12-4, the final score. You know that. Want to get into it and break down a few storylines here. Going into the off day, we'll also have a off day podcast, mailbag style. We'll probably drop that on Friday morning and space them out a little bit. But yesterday, big win for the Pirates and a great offensive output. Ryan O'Hearn shining a career high six RBIs. Marcelo Zuna hit a home run. That's a storyline. He's not hit one since May 15th. He had been out of the lineup for some time. I wrote at MLB.com about the situation that the Pirates find themselves in with Ozuna, how to handle that, things that are coming down the pike with O'Neill Cruz, Connor Griffin. I also had the fan five alarm was on there, and we had Connor Griffin on. He gave kind of an update of his health, so I'm going to finish up the podcast talking about that. But want to get into the storylines from yesterday's game. Thought this was a very interesting one. We saw a lot of good stuff. And I like the Pirates' offensive approach early, really ambushing Aaron Savali coming off the injured list. They did not let him stick around long. The top of the lineup was excellent yesterday. Spencer Horwitz started it off with a double, Brandon Lauk, Reynolds, Reynolds double, O'Hearn double. At that point, it was just kind of on. Like they made three straight outs to end the inning, but you saw what was happening. You saw the way the Pirates were seeing the ball, and you just got a feeling it was going to be one of these nights. 16 total hits for the lineup. Everybody had one. Several guys had multiple. Horwitz, Reynolds, O'Hearn had three, Gonzalez two, Ozuna, Jared Triolo. Excellent stuff up and down the lineup. It became the Pirates' first series win since Houston at the beginning of this month. It was tied for their fourth best offensive output of the season. And it represented, this is, I think, my favorite stat coming out of this one, the seventh time the Pirates have scored double-digit runs. That matches their entire 2025 total. Had a conversation with a few people at Sutter Health Park just about the Pirates' offense and how different it feels. And this team, if you can figure out the bullpen, if the starting rotation can look more like Braxton Ashcraft this time and not like the past couple of weeks, you have something here because of this offense. And that's what we're seeing. The offense is doing all of this stuff without a guy the Pirates spent ten and a half million dollars on this offseason with the one and a half million dollar buyout. Imagine what this would look like if Ozuna was productive. I'm curious to see what happens with his game coming out of Wednesday. He's not played. I don't think he had played in five. Uh forget what the number exact number was in my story. I can look it up while we're talking, but uh he just he had not been used at all. I think it was like his sixth start since May 31st, something like that. Um what if he gets hot? What if it happens? What if it clicks for him? And it needs to too. Uh that's the other part of this. Um, that i i the pirates uh are doing, I I think doing the right thing with Ozuna. You know, Zuna wants to play more. I understand both sides of this. It's completely logical. You know Zuna was talking last night, and I don't think it was anything malicious, but he did bring up, you know, wanting to play and how playing helps him, and and if he's, you know, it has a good game and then he's out of the lineup, he can't really build on it. But if you're the pirates, you can't really play a guy that entered the game with a 193 batting average with a sub-600 OPS. You just have better ways to spend those reps. So we're kind of caught in this uh push and pull catch 22 situation, whatever it is, where something needs to happen either way. And probably it was his sixth start since May 28th with Ozuna. I just wanted to be accurate on that. But it needs something needs to happen either way. And the negative of it is that Ozuna doesn't build on it, and you have O'Neill Cruz, Connor Griffin come back, and you end up with a uh you needing the roster spot, and that's uh completely understandable. Maybe Griffin comes back and you want to put him at DH a little bit, probably want to DH Cruz a little bit, give Reynolds a half day off from time to time, O'Hearn and Lal too. It's just you can't, it it's not a charity situation with the DH spot anymore. But that being said, do you try to find out with Ozuna? I I'm not entirely in disagreement with Ben Charrington that there is a hot streak in there somewhere. My argument is that to get to that hot streak or the opportunity that would be available in that hot streak, it's hard to see it. And I've said this in radio interviews and on this podcast, and you know, kind of what overrides that is if Ozuna can have more games like he did yesterday, and the Pirates can allocate those reps while that opportunity is there. I love the swing from Ozuna last night. Um, that was that reinforced to me that it's not all gone. I don't know if it comes out consistently or this story ends well, but you're talking about a middle end heater, 448 feet, got his hands in, uh or cleared his hands. That'll work. That'll work. Also at a single, um, and just better at bats. I thought it was a very human moment, too, talking to Ozuna after the game, where he was saying that you know it's this balance between you know being jumpy, too aggressive, trying to do too much, but also like Tony Beasley, Don Kelly both told them like, don't be afraid to swing at the first pitch. Go after it, be aggressive. That's all so you want to be like smartly aggressive, I guess is how you would describe it. But um the Pirates need more out of Marcelo Zuna, and uh they need it probably soon, I guess is the point I'm trying to make. That you know, coming down the pike, uh Cruz and Griffin will be back, and this is kind of a trial period. So that was one storyline. Another one want to talk about Ryan O'Hearn a little bit. Um, he's been quiet since coming back from the quad injury at 229 average, 662 OPS, uh, 18 strikeouts mixed in there as well. He hadn't been happy with how he'd been hitting the ball the other way, the strength of his game. We saw it last night, and that's when Ryan O'Hearn is going well when he's taking the ball to left field, did that a lot. Uh, he's up to 290 and 826 OPS, had seven hits in the series, including a pair of three-hit games last night. Like I mentioned, double in the first, home run in the fourth, single in the seventh, and uh six ribies a career high, if I didn't say that already. Pretty cool way to celebrate your 800th MLB game, if I may say so myself. Uh, but uh O'Hearn uh he's so steady, and I don't know if there's anything really to analyze there. I mean, do you want production from Ryan O'Hearn? Of course you want production from Ryan O'Hearn. Are you going to play Ryan O'Hearn? Of course you're going to play him. Uh, it's just a matter of where. But him going, him getting hot. Um, it's something, and I think about it with Lal too, where he had kind of gone through a couple games where he's scuffling a little quiet. And these guys are so professional they pull themselves out of it. And the Pirates lineup as a whole, you know, you can poke holes in what they they have this season, you can worry about the bullpen, the starting rotation's been down a little bit, whatever. Um, the offense really hasn't gone through that much of a lull. And I I don't we we're seeing how, and I don't see how you can go through a sustained lull. I guess that doesn't, it's kind of contradictory, but what I'm saying is you have enough good hitters in there that it it should be like slump proof, right? And Reynolds is going the way he is, Horwitz had a hotter streak, he's been, you know, he's on base four times last night, two doubles. If Lau is going, O'Hearn, and again, this is without O'Neill Cruz and Connor Griffin. Um, but Mangum's been a lot better. If you can get Ozuna going, this is really, really a dynamic offense, and it's what should carry the Pirates through. And you know, the starting rotation, I have full confidence that's going to bounce back. We'll talk about Braxton Ashcraft in a minute. The question obviously remains the bullpen and whether they can uh take care of that. But I actually thought this game this series was pretty decent. Dennis Santana pitched again. He is looking better to me, quicker innings, going right after guys. This is starting to approach the level of Dennis Santana we're used to seeing. Um, and I just have to bump him up in the leverage spots. I think that's one area where you know he's he's gotten games that there's a pretty big deficit one way or the other. And if if he's performing this way in leverage, that's a big thing for the bullpen in Isaac Matson as well. He's back, gave up a home run last night. Not going to read too much into it. I'm actually writing about Isaac Matson later. But anyway, went from the bullpen being sort of the biggest question mark, the offense being really good, starting rotation being another one to a degree. And uh Braxton Ashcraft is about the last guy I'd question right now with his performance. I think he should be an all-star. But it was good to see him do what he did last night. Six innings, two runs, one earned, four hits, three walks, and seven strikeouts. It looked like the Ashcraft of old. And he wasn't totally thrilled with it. I think he's being a little too hard on himself, talking about his efficiency could be better. He bemoaned some of the four-pitch walks, whatever. I mean, man, you got through six innings, you gave up two runs, one earned, 93 pitches, 58 for strikes. Uh his four-seamer was very good. The curveball was excellent. It got five of his 10 whiffs, finished off four of his strikeouts. This is the Ashcraft that the Pirates need, have become accustomed to seeing. Very, very impressed the way he went after guys. I'll take the minor hiccups. And this is not a bad lineup on the other side, by the way. Um, Nick Kurtz, Shea Langaliers, Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson, uh Zach Geloff has has a hit and seemingly about 50 straight games. Uh, but this is a very good team on the other side. Not, you know, not not the not the Dodgers or the Yankees or a Behemoth, but it's no slouch either. And Ashcraft really went through them well, attacked well, and looked like the type of Ashcraft that we've become accustomed to see. Anyway, all right, last point is just Connor Griffin. He was on the fan five alarm, and thanks so much, Connor, to doing that. That was awesome that he was able to hop on. We had a fun conversation uh about it. Started just kind of I don't even know how we got going on dating dating advice. I think we were joking about something with Austin Bechtold, uh, but asked him about that and changing tires and some other goofy stuff. But we got into some actual baseball talk too, and he he talked about his rehab and how he's sort of passing the time, but also how he's feeling really good. He's out to about 150 feet throwing. He had thrown on consecutive days. We talked to him on Wednesday. He was taking Wednesday off, was gonna get back to it today, but really eager to get back up there. See swinging, all of that is uh exactly the way you would want. Pirates are probably gonna get Connor Griffin back here before too long, I would imagine. I think we're, you know, Ben Sherrington using the word rehab assignment, I think that's a good sign. And Griffin is certainly eager to do that. I think the Pirates will be eager to have Connor Griffin back. So, all right, that does it for me today. Going to do a mailbag version of this thing a little bit later and uh write a story on Isaac Matson and otherwise enjoy the off day in Denver. Hope you enjoy the Pirates Insider Podcast. Everybody, talk to you tomorrow.