Mariners fall hard in blowout loss to Pittsburgh Wednesday

Published 10:30 am Thursday, June 25, 2026

Wednesday night didn’t start the way Braxton Ashcraft wanted. He made sure it finished according to plan.

Ashcraft allowed three consecutive singles to start, then settled down for six strong innings to lead the Pirates to an 11-1 win against the Seattle Mariners at PNC Park. Ashcraft didn’t walk anyone and struck out 10, one shy of a career-high.

With the outing, Ashcraft became the first Pirates pitcher since 1901 to have multiple starts with 10-plus strikeouts and no walks in a season.

“I think it starts with first-pitch strikes,” Ashcraft said. “Just getting ahead, staying there and putting guys away. Obviously the first inning didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. Couple early hits in the count, identified the plan, was able to pitch to it and carried through the rest of the game.”

The Pirates gave him plenty of support. They had 15 hits, including six doubles and a triple. Ryan O’Hearn alone went 4 for 5 with three doubles, three RBIs and two runs scored. Endy Rodriguez went 2 for 4 with a double and three RBIs.

“When you can put up a ton of runs like that it’s always fun,” O’Hearn said. “I think it started with Braxton, just no walks and pounded the strike zone. He’s got great stuff. Then we scratched a few and the floodgates kind of opened there.”

After the initial Seattle run, coming on singles from J.P. Crawford, Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez (on three consecutive pitches), neither team scored until the fourth. The Pirates didn’t record a hit against Mariners starter Bryan Woo until the fourth, when they tacked together six hits in a five-run frame. Woo threw 40 pitches in the inning.

Bryan Reynolds had the first single, extending his hitting streak to 14 games and his on-base streak to 29, the longest in baseball. Three consecutive extra-base hits gave the Pirates a 3-1 lead: O’Hearn doubled, Endy Rodriguez plated two with his own double, then Tyler Callihan scored Rodriguez with a triple.

Jake Mangum and Esmerlyn Valdez added RBI singles. Valdez’s single, a pinch-hit effort for Spencer Horwitz, was a 107 mph, 401-foot liner off the center field wall.

“We’re a really contagious hitting team,” Callihan said. “Once you see one guy put a good swing on them, then you’re like ‘Alright, he’s got a chance.’ Then you pass it to the next guy, pass it to the next guy. Good AB after good AB.”

The Pirates tacked on four more in the seventh against Seattle reliever Nick Davila, loading the bases with two singles and a walk before a two-run double from O’Hearn, an RBI single for Rodriguez and Callihan’s sacrifice fly.

Ashcraft struck out two batters in the first, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. In the second and third innings, he struck out just one. Six of his 10 strikeouts — and 8 of 15 whiffs — came on his curveball.

“I don’t think that it was necessarily was the solidified gameplan, but it was kind of what the game told us that we had tonight,” Ashcraft said. “Endy did a really good job of recognizing that and just the more I throw that pitch, the better it feels and the better feel I have for it. Just when you have something working, you kind of lean on it and that’s what we did tonight.”

It was over when…

… the Pirates added four in the seventh, although they tacked on two more on three doubles in the eighth for good measure. Valdez, Reynolds and O’Hearn all doubled against right-hander Alex Hoppe.

On the mound

Ashcraft threw 86 pitches, an impressive 68 for strikes. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched the final three innings.

Ashcraft and Mlodzinski combined to hold the Mariners hitless from Josh Naylor’s two-out double in the third to Rodriguez’s leadoff single in the ninth.

There was some surprise Mlodzinski remained out for the ninth inning. Kelly said they’d thought about pulling him up 10 runs.

“It’s a fine line, toeing with keeping him built out,” Kelly said. “He was only at 26 pitches after the first two and was really efficient. So, toeing a fine line.”

Kelly added that Jared Jones is trending toward being available for his next start, presumably Saturday against the Cincinnati Reds.

At the plate

The Pirates had 15 hits. Thirteen of the 15 came in their three big innings.

“You’ve heard ‘Hitting is contagious,’ I think that’s true,” O’Hearn said. “Your boys go up there and hit some line drives, it just kind of flows from there. Like I always talk about, quality at-bats up and down the line. Makes it really fun.”

Nick Gonzales went 2 for 4 with two singles and scored twice.