In Grapefruit League baseball last night, Braxton Ashcraft had another impressive outing, throwing five-and-a-third innings, striking out eight, and giving up one unearned run in a 3-1 Pirates win over the Tigers. Joey Bart singled in a run in the second, newly-acquired utility man Tyler Callihan scored a run on a sacrifice fly and drove in a run with a solo home run for the Bucs.
Manager Donnie Kelly says Ashcraft had a good offseason after a rare injury-free 2025, and he’s already in fine form.
Ashcraft says it’s been different not being in “recovery mode” in the offseason.
The Pirates will play the Orioles in Sarasota tonight with Cam Sanders on the mound.
Tomorrow night is the Spring Breakout game, featuring the best Pirates prospects against the top Tigers prospects in Bradenton. Former number-one draft choices Konnor Griffin and Termarr Johnson are among the Pirates expected to play, and so is right-hander Seth Hernandez, the top draft pick who has not yet thrown in an official game since he was the sixth overall draft pick last summer. Hernandez is already the third-highest rated Pirates prospect, and is ranked number 29 in all of baseball by mlb.com.
