Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Ashcraft throws complete game as Rafael Flores Jr. steps up

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Ashcraft throws complete game as Rafael Flores Jr. steps up · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Buco Territory,
0:13
Speaker 1: presented to you by the Foul Territory Network. I'm Noah Hiles.
0:16
Speaker 1: Joining me as always is my guy Mark aka Platinum Key.
0:20
Speaker 1: Josh will be on this episode. Later he'll have his
0:23
Speaker 1: weekly segment Jay Hay Now, which sends us into the weekend.
0:27
Speaker 1: We are recording this on Thursday, August thirteenth. The Pirates
0:30
Speaker 1: are gonna conclude their three games set in Miami later today,
0:36
Speaker 1: but honestly, mark the games, they just kind of don't
0:39
Speaker 1: matter anymore. This is this season's pretty much over. So
0:43
Speaker 1: rather than breaking down yet another series loss for the Pirates,
0:46
Speaker 1: I believe that's seven or eight in a row, I'm
0:48
Speaker 1: losing track. We're gonna talk about We're gonna talk about
0:52
Speaker 1: the big story on the day, and then it's one
0:55
Speaker 1: of the biggest stories in baseball, and that's Paul Skins.
0:57
Speaker 1: Paul Skins his last start, if you looked at it
1:01
Speaker 1: on paper, wasn't horrible. He went five innings, he only
1:04
Speaker 1: allowed two runs, but he was pulled after sixty five pitches.
1:11
Speaker 1: His velocity sitting at ninety five miles an hour in
1:14
Speaker 1: the entire Baseball world is wondering what's going on with
1:19
Speaker 1: Paul Skins Mark all Throat Originally, I mean, I know
1:22
Speaker 1: you watch every game. What are you thinking when you're
1:26
Speaker 1: watching him pitch his last outing.
1:29
Speaker 2: It's a stark difference compared to the Paul Skins we
1:33
Speaker 2: watched Winnisi Young win Rookie of the Year. He only
1:37
Speaker 2: had four whiffs in his last outing. That's unheard of
1:41
Speaker 2: for Paul Skins. You just don't see him having that
1:45
Speaker 2: kind of struggle where I mean he usually can find
1:48
Speaker 2: a way to get the whiffs and find the way
1:50
Speaker 2: to strike guy's out. It was nice he like add
1:53
Speaker 2: a double playball. We haven't seen him turn too many
1:56
Speaker 2: of those. Get him out of some trouble there, and
1:59
Speaker 2: you have the stat line didn't look that bad, but
2:02
Speaker 2: watching it, it felt so much worse. Like I was
2:05
Speaker 2: kind of surprised after watching that game looking at the
2:08
Speaker 2: box score, going like, oh, it wasn't terrible, but it
2:12
Speaker 2: just felt bad, especially getting pulled at sixty five pitches.
2:16
Speaker 2: And I think that's like the biggest concern for me
2:19
Speaker 2: is just like, if he's pitching efficiently, why aren't we
2:23
Speaker 2: letting him go past the fifth inning? So that was
2:27
Speaker 2: my biggest reflag. I'm just confused by that decision. If
2:31
Speaker 2: he's healthy, why aren't you letting your ace throw more
2:35
Speaker 2: than seventy pitches? And that leads me to think that
2:40
Speaker 2: maybe there's something that's not going well that they want
2:44
Speaker 2: to limit his pitch count to address that. But yeah,
2:47
Speaker 2: what are your thoughts on this?
2:52
Speaker 1: I don't know overall. I can't say I'm super surprised
2:56
Speaker 1: by any of it, because this is where this has
2:58
Speaker 1: been trending, this is where we've been heading. And there
3:01
Speaker 1: was that little stretch in July where they won three
3:04
Speaker 1: straight starts of his in a row. But again, like
3:07
Speaker 1: we pointed out, a lot of that was due to
3:09
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly high run support and any time that he's needed
3:15
Speaker 1: to be Paul Skans really this year, he just hasn't been.
3:19
Speaker 1: And I think he is. He's lost right now. Yeah,
3:23
Speaker 1: and I've said that on the show before too, that
3:26
Speaker 1: I don't know if he knows what's wrong, or if
3:28
Speaker 1: he's able to admit what's wrong even if he does know.
3:32
Speaker 1: So when I saw that stuff, it wasn't a surprise.
3:36
Speaker 1: So to me, where my mind immediately wondered was how
3:43
Speaker 1: much longer are they going to let this go on. Yeah,
3:45
Speaker 1: because this is a guy who's just simply never going
3:48
Speaker 1: to be allowed to fail in quiet. Every time that
3:52
Speaker 1: he does not look like Paul Skins, it becomes a
3:55
Speaker 1: bigger conversation. And it's really been a way overshadowing the
3:59
Speaker 1: Pos season collapse because he is in a way bigger
4:03
Speaker 1: than the Pirates as far as the National Baseball steam
4:05
Speaker 1: is concerned. He is the headliner here, especially now that
4:10
Speaker 1: they're not really a relevant team in the playoff race.
4:13
Speaker 1: This is the story around him, and how do you
4:15
Speaker 1: get out of this type of funk when it's lasted
4:18
Speaker 1: this long and when everyone's watching. So that's where my
4:21
Speaker 1: mind wandered, is how much longer do you let him
4:23
Speaker 1: try to figure this out before you just shut him down?
4:27
Speaker 1: Which we can talk about now, because there's two sides
4:30
Speaker 1: of that coin. I'm a big believer that young players
4:33
Speaker 1: should be allowed to struggle, That young players should be
4:38
Speaker 1: given the opportunity to figure it out, if they are
4:42
Speaker 1: healthy enough to figure it out, if they are mentally
4:46
Speaker 1: capable of figuring it out, if there is no sign
4:52
Speaker 1: of significant damage on the horizon, if you allow it
4:55
Speaker 1: to keep going, then let someone punch their way out
4:58
Speaker 1: of it, or at least try because you never know
5:00
Speaker 1: what you're gonna learn. I also think that shutting schemes
5:06
Speaker 1: down right now is the clearest waving of the white
5:10
Speaker 1: flag on the season that you can have. Yep, unless
5:15
Speaker 1: if you're putting him on the IL, which I mean,
5:17
Speaker 1: and maybe that's how you do it. You just say
5:19
Speaker 1: like he has arm fatigue or something. But anything you
5:22
Speaker 1: put him on the IL for, if it's related to
5:25
Speaker 1: an arm is going to create like a massive panic.
5:29
Speaker 1: So if you were to give him an IL thing stint,
5:32
Speaker 1: it would have to be for like an oblique or
5:36
Speaker 1: something in the mid section. I don't know, it could
5:38
Speaker 1: not be for anything arm related, unless if that's the
5:43
Speaker 1: actual case, then you're just telling the truth. But if
5:47
Speaker 1: you if you shut him down, that they're the clubhouse
5:52
Speaker 1: is dead. Like that the twenty twenty six season for
5:55
Speaker 1: the Pirates, which is essentially over at anyway, they're done.
6:00
Speaker 1: They're done anyway. But I mean for a team that
6:04
Speaker 1: Wednesday night, their manager talked about how they look like
6:06
Speaker 1: they were feeling sorry for themselves. They didn't have a
6:08
Speaker 1: lot of fight. That's just gonna be the vibe from here.
6:11
Speaker 1: On out if they shut down schemes. So I see
6:13
Speaker 1: that side of the coin. All that being said, I'm
6:17
Speaker 1: not convinced that he can't do further damage to himself,
6:21
Speaker 1: like mentally or if this is a physical thing, then
6:26
Speaker 1: this isn't even a conversation. Yep, Right, Like we saw
6:30
Speaker 1: Mitch Keller's VLO drop and just Mitch Keller hadn't looked
6:35
Speaker 1: like himself this year and then all of a sudden
6:37
Speaker 1: season ending injury. You know, I don't think the Pirates
6:44
Speaker 1: are letting Paul Skins pitch through an injury. I think
6:48
Speaker 1: Paul Skeins is mature enough to recognize how stupid it
6:53
Speaker 1: would be for him to pitch through an injury at
6:55
Speaker 1: literally any point in his career, especially right now, especially
6:59
Speaker 1: considering the state of the team. I know he's the
7:01
Speaker 1: ultimate competitor, but like, I think Paul Skins is able
7:04
Speaker 1: to recognize, like, hey, I'm not helping anyone if I'm
7:07
Speaker 1: not a hive percent here. But then there's also the
7:11
Speaker 1: element of like, well, maybe they just don't know right now,
7:14
Speaker 1: but this was this was the first sign where they're like,
7:18
Speaker 1: all right, we need to explore this further, right, Because
7:21
Speaker 1: there's clearly something and if they find something, then this
7:24
Speaker 1: conversation's meaningless. He's done, even if it's something small. If
7:29
Speaker 1: there's an injury, he's done. Yeah, done for twenty twenty six.
7:33
Speaker 1: I don't care if it's turf tow. I don't care
7:35
Speaker 1: if it's an oblique or a hamstring or a blister
7:39
Speaker 1: on his thumb or whatever it is. He's done. He's
7:43
Speaker 1: done because it's clearly been impacting him to a point
7:47
Speaker 1: where he's just not effective, not as effective anymore. But
7:51
Speaker 1: then you go to the mental side of it, and
7:54
Speaker 1: then I'll throw this to you, Mark. You know, you
7:58
Speaker 1: risk a lot of things going wrong if the player
8:01
Speaker 1: isn't mentally capable of handling this right now, and maybe
8:05
Speaker 1: getting away from it would be the better option. And
8:08
Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting I don't think that's what Paul Skeens
8:11
Speaker 1: wants at all. I think Paul Skeens wants to keep
8:13
Speaker 1: fighting through this. But if there is something wrong up
8:18
Speaker 1: there and he starts to because I'm a firm believer
8:22
Speaker 1: of this mess developed from Paul trying to do too much,
8:27
Speaker 1: from him training differently, from him maybe overthinking the way
8:31
Speaker 1: that he goes about getting hitters out game after game,
8:35
Speaker 1: at bad after at bat, and so giving him an
8:38
Speaker 1: opportunity to keep overthinking could lead to further mental duress
8:44
Speaker 1: or even physical duress where he might push himself too far,
8:48
Speaker 1: and then you do have a really big problem. So
8:51
Speaker 1: I'll ask you, Mark, I mean, if they were to
8:54
Speaker 1: come out and just say, hey, Paul Skeins is done,
8:57
Speaker 1: what would your reaction be?
8:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I would support it one hundred percent.
9:02
Speaker 2: That's when we last talked about schemes prior to his
9:05
Speaker 2: last start. I said, you know, if things aren't going
9:08
Speaker 2: well continuing into September, I would fully support shutting him down.
9:13
Speaker 2: He's just too important of an asset to this team
9:16
Speaker 2: and you need to find a way to get him right.
9:19
Speaker 2: I really like what you said about letting him work
9:22
Speaker 2: through these struggles, learn from these mistakes, learn from the adversity,
9:27
Speaker 2: learn how to overcome that, not let it, you know,
9:29
Speaker 2: get too much into him. But at the same time,
9:33
Speaker 2: trotting him out there just for like a humiliation ritual,
9:36
Speaker 2: that's not going to help his mental side either, if
9:38
Speaker 2: he's just getting shelled all the time. So it's it's
9:42
Speaker 2: you gotta find that balance there As to what's best
9:44
Speaker 2: for Paul Skins. He's such a competitor that I feel
9:48
Speaker 2: like shutting him down may not be what he wants,
9:52
Speaker 2: but it could be what's best for him. It could
9:55
Speaker 2: be what's best for this team. Could give some guys,
9:57
Speaker 2: some younger guys in the rotation a shot to figure out,
10:00
Speaker 2: you know, what she got, or give them a chance
10:03
Speaker 2: to show off before the off season if you're trying
10:06
Speaker 2: to move one of these starting pitchers that's younger. But yeah,
10:10
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's concerning, and there's no easy way
10:14
Speaker 2: of handling this. I don't know if there's a right
10:16
Speaker 2: way or but it's yeah, you gotta do something because
10:21
Speaker 2: you can't just lems go out there for and throw
10:23
Speaker 2: seventy pitches in outing the rest of the year. I
10:25
Speaker 2: don't think what do you think? I mean, could you?
10:28
Speaker 1: Well? I mean, I'm just more concerned now if I'm
10:31
Speaker 1: the Pirates, I'm not even thinking about twenty twenty six.
10:34
Speaker 1: It's just like, yeah, how does this affect the orgin organizations?
10:38
Speaker 1: Should direct? Should direct trajectory long term?
10:44
Speaker 3: Yeah? Right, right?
10:45
Speaker 1: I mean, if it's an injury, what do you what
10:50
Speaker 1: do you even do? If this is a serious injury
10:53
Speaker 1: and I'm not, you know, wishing that or anything. I
10:56
Speaker 1: just knocked on wood because I mean, no one wants
10:58
Speaker 1: to see Postkins hurt. But what if you is, what
11:00
Speaker 1: does that mean for the Pirates next year if there
11:02
Speaker 1: is a baseball season, right? I mean if there's not. Heck,
11:06
Speaker 1: if he's out next year, then it would be best
11:09
Speaker 1: for everyone in this town for their ado to be baseball, right.
11:11
Speaker 1: But yeah, and what does that mean for their relationship
11:15
Speaker 1: with Paul Skins moving forward? As far as the expectation
11:18
Speaker 1: and value that you would hope to get from him,
11:20
Speaker 1: and even if it's not injury, Like, what is the
11:24
Speaker 1: expectation from this guy moving forward?
11:27
Speaker 3: Now?
11:27
Speaker 1: If he's hurt or even if he's not hurt. Something
11:30
Speaker 1: is so wrong right now? And yeah, it's it's it
11:36
Speaker 1: seems like you're in a catch twenty two where if
11:40
Speaker 1: you pull, if you wave the white flag, that's gonna
11:43
Speaker 1: haunt him. Yeah, that's gonna haunt him, and it's gonna
11:47
Speaker 1: follow him and you might force him to press even
11:52
Speaker 1: harder in the off season, and you might be creating
11:55
Speaker 1: a mental situation that I could allow it to continue
11:57
Speaker 1: to spiral. Exactly if he's hurt, then that's the other
12:01
Speaker 1: part of it, where how hurt is he? How long
12:05
Speaker 1: has he been hurt? There's so much into this and
12:08
Speaker 1: it expands way, way, way further than twenty twenty six.
12:13
Speaker 1: And it's it's interesting because, I mean, there's a chance
12:16
Speaker 1: that people who are making these decisions aren't even gonna
12:19
Speaker 1: be around right to be there for the results. And
12:24
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just scary if you're the Pirates or
12:27
Speaker 1: if you're a Pirates fan, because you've got to figure
12:30
Speaker 1: out a way to you know, stop the bleeding in
12:35
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. It cannot go any further than this year.
12:39
Speaker 1: And if that, and if you believe, for one reason
12:42
Speaker 1: or another that the best way to do that is
12:45
Speaker 1: by just shutting him down, then that's what has to happen.
12:48
Speaker 1: His feelings be damned right. You know, you get him
12:51
Speaker 1: with your mental skills, coaches, and you just kind of
12:55
Speaker 1: allow him to get right mentally and physically. Maybe send
12:59
Speaker 1: him to Bradenton, keep him away from the team. You
13:04
Speaker 1: got to figure out something though that to me, for
13:06
Speaker 1: the remainder of the season, that's their top priority because
13:09
Speaker 1: it's not making the playoffs. They're not going to make
13:11
Speaker 1: the playoffs. They're probably not going to be a team
13:13
Speaker 1: that finishes above five hundred, and that's disappointing. But now
13:17
Speaker 1: the story of the season for the from here on
13:19
Speaker 1: out to me is figuring out what the hell's wrong
13:23
Speaker 1: with Paul Skins and putting together a plan to make
13:27
Speaker 1: sure that if there is baseball in twenty twenty seven,
13:30
Speaker 1: that this guy can be. I mean, forget what he
13:33
Speaker 1: was in twenty twenty five or twenty twenty four, excuse
13:36
Speaker 1: or twenty twenty five, forget getting him back to cy
13:40
Speaker 1: young for him, You've just got to get him back
13:42
Speaker 1: to being an All Star, right, You've got to get
13:45
Speaker 1: him to look right.
13:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't need an era under two. I'll just
13:49
Speaker 2: take in the era right around three, you know.
13:52
Speaker 1: So yeah, just get him looking something like his old self.
13:57
Speaker 1: So all right, well, we're gonna take a quick break.
14:00
Speaker 1: We're going to play a few ads, and then when
14:01
Speaker 1: we come back, we will round out our show with
14:04
Speaker 1: our weekly segment, Jay Hay Now with our pal Josh
14:07
Speaker 1: Harrison here on Bucko Territory.
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Speaker 2: All right, and we're back here with Jay. Hey, no,
15:15
Speaker 2: it cannot be with us for this later segment. He's
15:17
Speaker 2: covering the Steelers Packers preseason game tonight. So Josh and
15:21
Speaker 2: I are coming to you after the Pirates game today.
15:25
Speaker 2: Pirates beat up on the Marlins thirteen to one, and
15:30
Speaker 2: they did it with some big help from Rafael Flores Junior.
15:34
Speaker 2: We got news before the game that Andy Rodriguez had
15:37
Speaker 2: to go on the injured list with some hip discomfort,
15:41
Speaker 2: and so Rafael Junior stepped up to be He's now
15:44
Speaker 2: basically the Pirates catcher or backup catcher, I should say,
15:47
Speaker 2: moving forward, and what a day for Rafael Flora's junior.
15:52
Speaker 2: Not only did he catch a complete game, which we're
15:55
Speaker 2: gonna discuss here in a little bit, but he also
15:59
Speaker 2: picked off his first run trying to steal, which was
16:02
Speaker 2: great to see, and then also just you know, casually
16:07
Speaker 2: throw in a couple homers for six RBI. His ops
16:11
Speaker 2: now is up to nine to twenty eight on the season.
16:14
Speaker 2: So I love seeing the pop and Rothy's bat here.
16:18
Speaker 2: But Jay, I just want to talk to you about
16:21
Speaker 2: how Flow had to step up. You know, we saw
16:24
Speaker 2: Andy go down. What does that mean for a team
16:27
Speaker 2: when you see a guy that you know the next
16:30
Speaker 2: man up and he instantly starts to succeed.
16:36
Speaker 6: Well, right away, we've talked, you know, just in general
16:39
Speaker 6: about next man up when injuries happen or you know,
16:43
Speaker 6: pretty much what they dealt with all year missing key guys,
16:46
Speaker 6: and you know when Andy goes down before the game,
16:51
Speaker 6: you know he's got to step right in. And you
16:53
Speaker 6: mentioned he called a complete game but threw in two
16:55
Speaker 6: home runs six RBIs as well, especially in a time
16:59
Speaker 6: where you know team is really struggling, and you know,
17:03
Speaker 6: every win right now, as we said, is going to
17:05
Speaker 6: be important. You want to win every series, even though
17:07
Speaker 6: they didn't win this one, but you still need to
17:08
Speaker 6: win games, and any given night, you want it to
17:11
Speaker 6: be you know, a collective effort or somebody different than today. Yes,
17:15
Speaker 6: I think they put it on them thirteen to one,
17:17
Speaker 6: but you know Flow had his his DNA, his fingerprints
17:21
Speaker 6: all over this one. And you know it's nice because
17:24
Speaker 6: as you mentioned, or as we've talked about the injury
17:27
Speaker 6: bug and you know, some unfortunate situations, you know, he
17:30
Speaker 6: stepped right in and made his presence felt. Not that
17:33
Speaker 6: he you know, was expecting to do this, but you
17:36
Speaker 6: know that's all you can really ask for is when
17:38
Speaker 6: you get an opportunity is to contribute, and today he
17:40
Speaker 6: contributed in a big way, both offensively and defensively.
17:44
Speaker 3: And in a.
17:45
Speaker 6: Time like this, you know they needed someone to step up,
17:50
Speaker 6: and I think they had a meeting yesterday, and uh,
17:53
Speaker 6: you know, it's always nice to come out of a
17:54
Speaker 6: meeting like like that, and you know, not saying that
17:57
Speaker 6: the meeting made them go score thirteen runs, but at
18:00
Speaker 6: the same time, you know, attention to detail, to say, hey,
18:03
Speaker 6: this is what we got in front of us, guys,
18:04
Speaker 6: let's go give it everything we got. And nobody really
18:08
Speaker 6: knows what we said behind those closed doors, but at
18:10
Speaker 6: the end of the day, you know, it must have
18:12
Speaker 6: resonated among some ears. And you know, I know a
18:15
Speaker 6: man flow was just waiting on an opportunity and he
18:17
Speaker 6: did a good job.
18:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh absolutely, And I loved that Don Kelly, you know,
18:23
Speaker 2: responded to another just backbreaking loss the way he did
18:27
Speaker 2: by you know, holding these guys accountable. I think the
18:30
Speaker 2: offense knows that it's been really, really bad lately, so
18:35
Speaker 2: having a breakout game where you score thirteen runs, hopefully
18:39
Speaker 2: that gets them going again. But we also saw, you know,
18:42
Speaker 2: on Jay Hey Day Saturday, they put up nine runs then,
18:46
Speaker 2: and I don't know if they scored nine runs the
18:49
Speaker 2: rest of the games up until today's game out here
18:53
Speaker 2: on Thursday. So nice to finally see the offense get going,
18:56
Speaker 2: especially having guys like Rafael Floor's junior or Jared Triolo,
19:01
Speaker 2: you know, contributing the back third of the lineup, just
19:06
Speaker 2: providing a bunch of spark, and so you'd love to
19:09
Speaker 2: see that, especially when it's been such a struggle. So
19:13
Speaker 2: they this team, this fan base needed this afternoon, Like
19:18
Speaker 2: the team account tweeted like the like resuscitated gift after it,
19:22
Speaker 2: Like I think everyone felt like, all right, we you
19:24
Speaker 2: just need to see the ball going the hoop here.
19:27
Speaker 2: Uh maybe this this sparks something, but who knows. We're
19:32
Speaker 2: gonna take a quick break here and we'll be turning
19:36
Speaker 2: back over here to Brax and Ashcraft, the guy who
19:40
Speaker 2: pitched a complete game to Rafael Flores Junior. On Deck
19:48
Speaker 2: is presented by Fox One. This weekend, the Pirates are
19:53
Speaker 2: taking on the Boston Red Sox Saturday on Fox Also
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Speaker 2: streaming on Fox one gonna be seven fifteen in Pittsburgh.
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Speaker 2: of the hottest teams in baseball, and all of a
20:13
Speaker 2: sudden they have cooled off pretty quickly. I think they've
20:17
Speaker 2: lost five in a row at the time of recording,
20:19
Speaker 2: after winning something like thirteen straight or something crazy. Just
20:24
Speaker 2: put together a really nice win streak, put themselves in
20:27
Speaker 2: serious playoff competition. There's you know, talk that they might
20:30
Speaker 2: be the al representative in the World Series possibly, So
20:35
Speaker 2: big big matchup here, big test for the Pirates. You
20:39
Speaker 2: want to defend PNC Park. Make sure that the season
20:43
Speaker 2: you know, isn't over quite yet. But Josh, I just
20:47
Speaker 2: want to get your thoughts. Did you ever bat against
20:50
Speaker 2: Sonny Gray?
20:50
Speaker 3: What did the.
20:51
Speaker 2: Pirates expect looking up against Sonny here?
20:56
Speaker 6: Yeah, face Sonny quite a bit when it is with Rids.
20:59
Speaker 6: Thing is the twins facing when he was in Oakland. Uh,
21:03
Speaker 6: he's a guy that's gonna you know, mix his pitchers.
21:05
Speaker 6: He's gonna throw, it's gonna throw strike sinker like a curve,
21:10
Speaker 6: which he'll kind of throw in any count to be honest.
21:12
Speaker 6: But he's a guy that is gonna be around his
21:15
Speaker 6: own but a guy that also knows how to pitch.
21:18
Speaker 6: Been around to a few different places. But but but
21:22
Speaker 6: definitely an interesting game. You know, you got Jones on
21:24
Speaker 6: the mound, You got him on the mound, and then
21:27
Speaker 6: you mentioned you know, Boston losing like maybe five straight,
21:31
Speaker 6: but I think at one point they had won twenty something.
21:33
Speaker 3: Of the games.
21:34
Speaker 6: Crazy the complete opposite of Pittsburgh at the time, and
21:39
Speaker 6: it's like, you know, maybe this is that we can where, Hey,
21:42
Speaker 6: do the tides turn?
21:43
Speaker 3: Where? All?
21:43
Speaker 2: Right?
21:43
Speaker 6: Now Boston is doing this and is doing this? I mean,
21:48
Speaker 6: we don't know, but you know, as as we said
21:50
Speaker 6: in the previous segment, the win in Miami headed back
21:52
Speaker 6: to Pittsburgh causes for a big series because every one
21:55
Speaker 6: of these series are going to be very important. And
21:58
Speaker 6: I don't know how many guys on a pirates are
22:00
Speaker 6: familiar with you know, Sonny Gray from you know, playing
22:03
Speaker 6: them in years pass when he's with.
22:04
Speaker 3: The Red or the Cardinals or whatever.
22:06
Speaker 6: But you know, he's a guy that there should be
22:08
Speaker 6: some familiarity with with a few guys. And you know,
22:11
Speaker 6: if Jones throw the ball like you know he's capable
22:14
Speaker 6: of it, it could calls for an interesting game.
22:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'd love to see Jared just get a nice
22:18
Speaker 2: bounce back start. I always love watching Boston as a
22:21
Speaker 2: guy who loves watching defense. Their their outfield defense is
22:25
Speaker 2: fun to watch with guys like William bray U Sedane
22:27
Speaker 2: Ralph Ayela. So make sure you tune in on to
22:30
Speaker 2: Fox on Saturday night and also streaming on Fox one
22:36
Speaker 2: and will be on Fox is streaming on Fox one.
22:38
Speaker 2: The Race October starts now and we have your front
22:41
Speaker 2: row seat to the wildest walkoffs, lights out, pitching and
22:44
Speaker 2: clutch plays all season long. Follow every you can't miss
22:47
Speaker 2: matchup his team's battle for a spot in the postseason.
22:50
Speaker 2: Then stream the twenty twenty six World Series live on
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Speaker 2: dot com.
23:14
Speaker 7: Okay, what do you say?
23:27
Speaker 3: All right?
23:27
Speaker 6: All right, j hay now here. We are recording this
23:31
Speaker 6: in after the Thursday day game. And I think Jay
23:36
Speaker 6: Hayes now segment is none other than Braxton Ashcraft complete
23:40
Speaker 6: game one run. I think close to ten strikeouts. If
23:45
Speaker 6: not ten.
23:47
Speaker 3: One batter over the minimum.
23:50
Speaker 6: Then crazy one batter over the minimum.
23:54
Speaker 3: Pretty cool.
23:54
Speaker 6: I think they said first guy since avon Nova did it,
23:57
Speaker 6: and I think I was part of two with the pirates.
24:00
Speaker 3: Von Nova did in seventeen.
24:02
Speaker 6: I believe, and I want to say Jeff Carson's did
24:04
Speaker 6: it in twenty eleven or twenty twelve in Houston. Complete
24:08
Speaker 6: game one is something to be you know, excited about.
24:11
Speaker 6: But to do it and under one hundred pitches, under ninety.
24:14
Speaker 2: Pitches, yeah, that's steroids.
24:17
Speaker 3: Yeah.
24:17
Speaker 6: I was rolling the strike zone, punching tickets, coming at you.
24:21
Speaker 6: And the one run came in the ninth inning leadoff
24:24
Speaker 6: battery where it's like, hey, I'm coming at you. If
24:26
Speaker 6: you hit the fast play, you hit the fast Not
24:28
Speaker 6: that he was trying to give it up, but we
24:31
Speaker 6: keep saying it. It's been a lot of hot and
24:34
Speaker 6: cold right now the past couple of weeks, and that
24:38
Speaker 6: that was a pick me up that they needed after
24:39
Speaker 6: losing the first two second one, losing two to nothing,
24:43
Speaker 6: you know, needed a.
24:44
Speaker 3: Good pitching performance.
24:45
Speaker 6: You got a dominant pitcher performance, and you had a
24:47
Speaker 6: dominant offensive performance.
24:49
Speaker 3: So offense was good.
24:51
Speaker 6: But even if they scored you know, two runs, you know,
24:54
Speaker 6: Braxton went out and did his thing.
24:56
Speaker 3: And uh, kudos to Braxton.
24:57
Speaker 6: As I said, CG he went the maddic route less
25:00
Speaker 6: than a hundred pitches and strikeouts. That's impressive. Only face
25:04
Speaker 6: one over to minimum, so hats off to him.
25:07
Speaker 2: And yeah, the Pirates needed this performance so so badly.
25:13
Speaker 2: They needed someone to step up from this rotation and
25:18
Speaker 2: show that they can go deep into games and be
25:21
Speaker 2: that ace, be that stopper when this team is skidding.
25:24
Speaker 2: And you'd love to see that from your one of
25:27
Speaker 2: your all stars this year in Braxton Ashcraft, he'd been
25:30
Speaker 2: he hadn't looked as sharp in like the second half necessarily,
25:34
Speaker 2: and just I mean, this is the best game of
25:38
Speaker 2: his career easily. I not stretch to say that by
25:42
Speaker 2: any means. When you throw eighty five pitches in nine
25:46
Speaker 2: in means I almost said shut out, but nine basically
25:48
Speaker 2: shut out inans that that's just absurd. And also I
25:53
Speaker 2: just loved how the offense responded as well. You know this,
25:57
Speaker 2: that's the two aspects of this team where both the
26:00
Speaker 2: offense has been faltering and the starting rotation has not
26:04
Speaker 2: been going deep, just hasn't been efficient. Today was just
26:08
Speaker 2: a complete one eighty for this entire team, and I
26:13
Speaker 2: feel like Braxton gave them that confidence, you know, not
26:17
Speaker 2: allowing that early lead where you know, we give up
26:20
Speaker 2: a like a run or two in the first or second,
26:22
Speaker 2: you're like, oh man, this is gonna be a long
26:25
Speaker 2: night because the way this offense is going, that could
26:27
Speaker 2: that could decide it. So having him hang on until
26:32
Speaker 2: the offense could pick up a lead and just carry
26:35
Speaker 2: that throughout the game is just I absolutely love it.
26:38
Speaker 2: I loved the bulldog mentality where he was just challenging guys.
26:43
Speaker 2: I think, like, I forget who said it after the game.
26:45
Speaker 2: I think it might have been Triolo, but one of
26:47
Speaker 2: the players looked up and like looked at the pitch
26:49
Speaker 2: count in like the sixth or seventh inning for Ashcraft
26:52
Speaker 2: and thought it was a typo just because they're like that,
26:54
Speaker 2: that can't be right. He was just absolutely dealing. So man,
27:00
Speaker 2: when the players needed most, Braxton Ashcraft stepped up, this
27:03
Speaker 2: offense stepped up to support him as well, and doing
27:06
Speaker 2: it with a brand new catcher or yeah, has never
27:11
Speaker 2: caught for Ashcraft before and so obviously the nd injury,
27:15
Speaker 2: you know, through a wrench int to that Henry has
27:17
Speaker 2: been catching a ton. Uh So yeah, just Ashcraft just saying, hey,
27:24
Speaker 2: I don't care, I'll throw to anyone. I'll go out
27:26
Speaker 2: there and shove no matter who's catching. Throw throw a
27:28
Speaker 2: trash came out there. I'll throw into that if I
27:30
Speaker 2: need to. So I love that he stepped up so well,
27:34
Speaker 2: and hopefully they can carry this momentum from this this
27:38
Speaker 2: last game of the series. Yeah, they lost the series.
27:40
Speaker 2: Yeah things are still Great's another series lost.
27:44
Speaker 3: But.
27:45
Speaker 2: If there was one game to take you in to
27:48
Speaker 2: propel you into this home stretch against Boston, going up
27:51
Speaker 2: against the Dodgers and then you know San Diego as well,
27:55
Speaker 2: you needed I guess Detroit's in there before the Dodgers,
27:58
Speaker 2: but you needed this kind of confidence boost. You didn't
28:04
Speaker 2: get that with Schemes, you know, you didn't get that
28:06
Speaker 2: any other game this series. So at least there's one.
28:09
Speaker 2: At least it's the end of the series. So you're
28:12
Speaker 2: flying back to Pittsburgh, you know, bumping some music. Yeah,
28:16
Speaker 2: the vibes are gonna be a little good, even though
28:18
Speaker 2: you're leaving Miami.
28:19
Speaker 3: That's kind of that's.
28:20
Speaker 2: Gotta be a little tough, but but yeah, so I
28:22
Speaker 2: just I'm very happy with the way this afternoon's game went. Yeah,
28:27
Speaker 2: any final thoughts on Ashcraft here, No, you.
28:31
Speaker 3: Had pretty much hit it.
28:32
Speaker 6: I was gonna mention, you know, doing it with the
28:34
Speaker 6: new catcher, with Flora's but you know they were on
28:37
Speaker 6: the same page, and I mean kudos to that's that's
28:41
Speaker 6: not easy to do, catch a guy for the first
28:42
Speaker 6: time and go, you know, be complete game with them
28:45
Speaker 6: and go one over the minimum m that that was.
28:49
Speaker 3: That was a good job both to them, both of them.
28:51
Speaker 2: And if you're catching us for the first time here,
28:55
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29:00
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29:30
Speaker 2: are a little you know, up hot and cold going
29:33
Speaker 2: in and out here. It's kind of like Josh's light
29:35
Speaker 2: right now. But yeah, any final thoughts here before we
29:40
Speaker 2: conclude today's episode.
29:41
Speaker 6: Josh, No, I think we hit everything and as you said,
29:45
Speaker 6: hit that subscribe button.
29:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, and my little final thought, Josh, I don't know
29:50
Speaker 2: if you saw, but there's a bobblehead museum in the
29:54
Speaker 2: Marlin Stadium and they make sure to include one of
29:58
Speaker 2: the best bobbleheads ever, the J G Nome, which was
30:02
Speaker 2: they scrolled by all the Pirates ones on the broadcast
30:05
Speaker 2: last night and that one, that one was there. So
30:07
Speaker 2: you're in the Marlins Park down there. Yeah, so just
30:11
Speaker 2: have to make sure you caught that. So all right,
30:14
Speaker 2: Well I'm platinum Key. He's Josh Harrison aka j Hay
30:17
Speaker 2: signing out of another episode of Buck of Territory, presented
30:20
Speaker 2: to you by the Foul Territory Network. Take care