Pirates Insider Podcast, Episode 31 (6/29 at Phillies)

The Pirates earned their most resilient win of the year on Monday in Philadelphia. What did Esmerlyn Valdez do? How did Braxton Ashcraft steady himself? And what did the Pirates offense show about its approach all year? Jason Mackey breaks down all of that, as well as Endy Rodriguez's big home run in the ninth inning.

Transcript

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What's up, Pirates fans? This is the Pirates Insider Podcast. I'm Jason Mackey talking to you from Philadelphia. And wow, that was some baseball game we just witnessed at Citizens Bank Park. It was 11-7 Pirates Final and uh had them all the way. Some tongue-in-cheek humor there, but the Pirates showed a ton of fight in this one. And what I wrote about at Inside the Pirates was this being sort of a microcosm of their season. They've talked all year about being resilient, about battling back, about scratching out runs, staying positive, any of those sort of cliched phrases you want to use, but they were all on display in this game. The Pirates were down 5-0 after three innings, and things did not look good. A personal anecdote, I was really worried about Braxton Ashcraft. I wrote about him yesterday for mlb.com, pirates.com, and I'm thinking that I am the jinx for Ashcraft. I'm blaming it all on me. Not to make it about me, it's not about me, but it was it wasn't what we've seen out of Ashcraft. He gives up three home runs to Trey Turner, Brandon Marsh, Bryce Harper, some misplaced pitches there. But wouldn't you know it? The Pirates sort of recalibrate. Ashcraft adjusts, gets those pitches down, winds up having a pretty good outing. I'll talk about that. But the big rally for the Pirates happened in the fourth and the fifth. They scored two runs in the fourth inning and six in the fifth. And at that point they were back in the fight. And there was some white knuckling in the later innings, but sort of my big picture point with this one, and what I'm taking away from it, is what this offense enables them to do. And this offense isn't just adding Ryan O'Hearn and Brandon Lau. It's much, much deeper than that. As Marilyn Valdez had a very big game, had two home runs or two hits, a home run, a double. He just continues to hit, two ribbies, two runs scored. Andy Rodriguez had the home run that sort of allowed everybody to breathe easy. Things were getting very tense in the seventh and eighth for the Pirates. You're looking at Evan Sisk working through some traffic. Gregory Soto, Johan Ramirez finishes it off. And we're in the ninth inning, and the Pirates have had problems finishing off games. And the Phillies have been really good in one-run games. I believe they've won 14 of their past 16 one-run games. But wouldn't you know it? Two outs. Here comes another Pirates rally. Ryan O'Hearn singles as Marilyn Valdez draws a walk. By the way, not only does he have a ton of power, I believe 10 of his 13 hits have gone for extra bases, but his plate discipline, his eye is very, very good. He draws a walk, Billy Cook comes in to pinch run, and then here comes Andy Rodriguez, puts the ball over the fence, a great swing, and just absolutely love seeing that. Andy was funny after the game. Chase Sugert was the opposing pitcher, and Andy said he was walking to the plate, kind of snickering, or saying, I'm sorry, my friend, for what I'm about to do. I think Andy probably knew something was going to happen, but uh Andy connected in a big way. And at that point, 11-7, the Pirates could kind of not relax, but Mason Montgomery took the mound, a lot less pressure on him. He walked one, struck out two, but got out of it no problem. The offense top to bottom, just so much better. Tyler Callahan has had moments. He had a quiet game tonight, but you know, he's had moments of helping them out. Jake Mangum, nearly a 300 hitter, has had a very good June. Jared Triolo Homered for the first time all season. That was to kick start the fifth inning. He also made a huge defensive play at the end of the seventh inning. Don Kelly said that was the play of the game for him. And we're not even talking about Connor Griffin, Brandon Lau, Brian Reynolds, Ryan O'Hearn. I mean, they were there, but they weren't the primary drivers. Um, what Esmerilen Valdez is doing right now is really something else. Um he is on some kind of heater. I love the line that Andy Rodriguez had post-game. He said, I hate that kid. He makes me feel stupid. He's 22 years old and he has more homers than me already. He is having everybody laugh a little bit, uh, but he the power he is showing is real. Got a hanging curveball from Aaron Nola, hit at 411 feet. He's just a third Pirates rookie since 1901 to Homer in four consecutive games. Dick Stewart and Garrett Jones are the only two other ones. Um play him. He has to stay in the lineup. And Don Kelly has done that uh until this kid cools off. I don't know what else you do other than play him every day. It's very, very impressive. Umdez Homered for the fourth time in as many games. He's the first pirate to do that since Corey Dickerson in July of 2018. Umy just continues to rake. And all in all, a very good win for the Pirates that would not be possible without what I thought was a very, very mature outing from Braxton Ashcraft. I mentioned the bad stuff. And I mean you can dissect this a little bit. The pitch to Trey Turner was terrible. He hung a curveball and it got hit. The pitch to Brandon Marsh was actually not that bad. The pitch to Marsh was a one-two slider down, and all three homers came with two strikes. I don't have a problem with the slider at the bottom of the zone there. Uh Marsh, you just kind of tip your cap to him at this point, and he's had a really good year. Um and Bryce Harper, one-two fast ball to Harper, you probably want to put it inside off the plate. It caught too much of the plate. He turned on it. Um he does what a player of Bryce Harper's caliber, what you expect him to do. Um, but having the wherewithal to sort of settle down, not let the outing spiral, get out in front of it. I just loved what Ashcraft did. He finished his day, it was actually pretty good. He only walked one, struck out eight, had 18 whiffs, threw first pitch strikes to 18 of 24. It's exactly what you would expect from Ashcraft, other than, you know, we'll say two bad pitches. One for sure, second one was a maybe, uh, but he ends up earning the win, improves to eight and three on the season. His ERA now is a tidy 3.33. Uh just love seeing what Ashcraft does. It was interesting to see him. He was kind of getting slowed down by home plate umpire Andy Fletcher when he got on the mound. I wrote about this in my takeout in on Ashcraft, if you if you read it. He loves the quick pitch guys. He loves to go fast. As soon as he gets the ball, he wants to go again. And it seemed like the Phillies were very aware of that, and they were trying to make him work a little bit slower. They eventually got it figured out, uh, but I did I enjoyed seeing that um other strategy there trying to slow down the Braxton Ashcraft and what he's been able to do. A couple other things that were notable from this game, Connor Griffin doubled. He also put down a bunt in the fifth inning that I thought was kind of neat. Don Kelly was asked about it afterward and said it wasn't anything that he told Griffin to do. There's sometimes a sign where they say like this might be an option, but uh you know it's up to the player. And Griffin put the bunt down and used his speed. Love seeing that. It's got the power, but um that's another important element of his game. And uh it's good to see Jared Triolo doing a little bit more, too. The home run was a nifty swing. Uh Triola was a sinker. It was kind of left middle-middle. It was a mistake pitch, but he cranked at 4.19. Pretty impressive at 103.5 off the bat. That gave the Pirates a 5-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning. Um, they would continue Brandon Lau with the sacrifice fly, and then Ryan O'Hearn with a single to left field. Boy, you can really tell when O'Hearn is feeling it. When he's going to left field, um, he he's on it. That is a good approach for him, and that's what he did on that hit. And then Andy Rodriguez draws a walk. That makes it 6-5. And then the Pirates actually took advantage of some mistakes from the Phillies. It was a weird outing for Phillies starter Aaron Nola, who was excellent early on. The Pirates could not get anything going through the first three innings. They got Griffin's double, a single from Andy, but that was about it. And then the Pirates just kind of kept at it. And we were asking Don Kelly after the game, what is it? You know, what what sort of adjustment flipped? And I think this is a good maybe stopping point to talk about the Pirates' offense overall. I want to link back to something Ben Charrington said on the Pirates Insider Show Sunday, but what Don Kelly said tonight was that it just took a little bit for their approach to develop and that they stayed within it, they stayed true to it, they sold out to their approach, and eventually the Pirates started to see results. Well, when I asked Ben about the offense on the show on Sunday, uh one of the things he said really stood out to me. It was about they feel like they've laid some groundwork over the past 36 months or so, and even the past 24 months, it's kind of taken a little bit of time to develop. And this comes with you know how guys are prepared to face that game each day, how they're training to combat different pitchers. Uh it's been trial and error. They've they've you know gone after some stuff that hasn't worked out, but they've adjusted. And I think, you know, as much as we've talked about the external additions being good, and they have been, I think this is a much more coherent plan. Guys are ready to hit. I think it's probably why you're seeing guys like Andy Rodriguez take a step forward, as Marilyn Valdez take a step forward. Um, even somebody like Tyler Callahan saw a stat earlier in the day about rookies contributing, and the pirates are getting more from young guys, and you know, when they have to go to depth spots, overall approach-wise, and what the pirates have built, it's just so much better, so much different than what they've had in past years. So I think that had something to do with the game, where they're trusting in their approach, and there's enough there, there's enough evidence that they're going to score runs that they don't have to get out of their approach. And so the Pirates started putting pressure on the Phillies. Aaron Knowles started walking, guys. He has not had a very good year. He came into this one 3-4 with a 558 ERA. Um, so he starts wobbling a bit, and the Pirates start hitting. After the Triola Homer, Jake Mangum doubled, Connor Griffin with that bunt single, like I mentioned, Brandon Lau with a sacrifice fly, that brings in a run. Reynolds draws a walk, there comes the O'Hearn single, uh, as Marilyn Valdez draws a walk, that loads him, Andy gets a walk. So a lot of patience. And then also, when you're having good at bats, when you're putting guys on, it opens the door to allow the other team to make some mistakes. And that's what happened with Tyler Callahan. Hit a ball to third to first base, um, and they throw Bryce Harper throws to short, which you know seemingly should have a double play to end the inning, um, and Trey Turner throws it away. And so not only does the inning not end, another run scores, and the Pirates are at that point, they're they're really rolling. Um so I just I loved what they did punching back. Um this is a very good team. I can't say that enough. The Phillies are the first team in Major League Baseball history to go from under 10 games under 500 to 10 games over 500 before the end of June. I mean, they were bad early on, but how good they've been lately, and you look at their lineup. I mean, my goodness, Turner, Schwarber, Harper, Marsh, Bohm, Bryson Stott, J.T. Romuto, I mean, this is a stacked team, and the Pirates were able to hang in it. They were able to sort of magically, Houdini-like, I'm not sure. They've certainly had some problems protecting leads, but they were able to avoid them in this one. And as a result, they start a series with an impressive win over the Phillies. They're now 43 and 42, and they have a chance to continue this momentum with Bubba Chandler on the mound tomorrow. All right, thanks so much for listening. Make sure you uh like and subscribe and do all that fun stuff to get these podcasts every single day. We're doing them Monday through Friday. That's sort of an amended schedule. I'll hint at this throughout the week, but I'll be back tomorrow to recap Tuesday's game. Excited for that one. Talk to you then here on the Pirates Insider Podcast.