Trailing 2-1 with one out within the ninth at Nice American Ball Park Thursday, Reynolds put a cost into Emilio Pagán’s fastball, but it surely couldn’t escape Marte’s outstretched, leaping arm in proper discipline.
“What a play,” supervisor Don Kelly stated. “Bryan hit it and Marte did an amazing job of going up and bringing it again. Unbelievable play.”
That catch was the distinction within the Pirates’ 2-1 loss to the Reds, their ninetieth lack of the season. The Reds, however, have been in a position to keep away from a sweep by the hands of the Pirates, preserving Cincinnati’s playoff hopes alive.
All through the sequence, the Pirates didn’t draw back from the truth that they have been enjoying for satisfaction whereas the Reds have been enjoying for October. Additionally they wish to change that in 2026, viewing this sequence as a preview of what a playoff ambiance could possibly be like.
“It offers us a style of what is forward for us,” Paul Skenes stated after his stellar begin on Wednesday. “The ambiance is simply electrical. I wasn’t on the market many of the sport after I got here out [of the game], however simply watching, it was unbelievable. Hopefully, we have now that in Pittsburgh subsequent 12 months.”
Work goes to should be achieved to realize that. Thursday’s loss was indicative of that.
Starter Braxton Ashcraft was environment friendly by 4 innings, however the Reds lastly broke by with a sequence of hits within the fifth. Whereas a powerful relay by Nick Yorke to Joey Bart was in a position to catch Ke’Bryan Hayes on the plate upon overview, Nick Gonzales made a throwing error on an RBI single by Marte that allowed him to maneuver to second and ultimately rating on a Gavin Lux base hit. Had Gonzales not thrown the ball dwelling, the Reds probably would have had a run taken off the board.
However while you think about that the Pirates had simply three hits on the day and it was their thirty sixth sport this season the place they scored zero or one run, the higher concern that’s plagued this workforce all season is obvious.
Pitching goes to have to hold the franchise transferring ahead, and having arms like Ashcraft emerge is among the greatest positives in a season like this. Not solely did he pitch nicely all 12 months, ending with a 2.71 ERA in his rookie marketing campaign, he additionally threw considerably extra innings than he ever had as a professional, ending at 118 between Triple-A and the Majors.
“Setting a basis to hold that workload into subsequent 12 months and be capable to construct on that and be pitching within the subsequent month subsequent 12 months, that is the aim,” Ashcraft stated. “And I feel that was the largest win of this 12 months, is throwing up zeros and high quality zeros, and nonetheless sustaining stuff, sustaining velocity, and giving our workforce an opportunity to win every time I am nicely above the earlier 12 months’s innings numbers.”
That’s a begin, however like Ashcraft’s innings, the Pirates are going to want to construct in 2026. If nothing else, they at the least hung powerful all sequence in opposition to the kind of workforce they might want to beat subsequent 12 months.
“That was an amazing baseball sequence,” Kelly stated. “Nicely performed on each side. The defensive effort, the pitching effort, offensively, discovering methods to return by. Bryan ought to’ve, might’ve tied that up, Marte pulls it again. We pulled three double performs late within the first sport. Yesterday, Yorke made some unbelievable performs and it was backwards and forwards. That was a playoff ambiance and I believed we responded actually, very well.”
