PITTSBURGH (AP) — Braxton Ashcraft and highly touted rookie Bubba Chandler combined for a three-hit shutout as the Pittsburgh Pirates breezed past the Colorado Rockies 9-0 on Friday night.
Ashcraft (4-2) struck out six with one hit and a walk to win his second consecutive start. Chandler, a hard-throwing 22-year-old right-hander considered the top pitching prospect in baseball, followed with four innings of scoreless relief to get the save in his major league debut.
Spencer Horwitz, Tommy Pham and Alexander Canario homered for Pittsburgh, which has won three of four. Andrew McCutchen doubled twice and drove in four runs off Colorado’s Antonio Senzatela (4-15), who struggled against the Pirates for the second time in three weeks.
Earlier this month in Denver, Senzatela was shelled for eight runs while failing to make it out of the first inning. The major-league worst Rockies somehow rallied to win that one 17-16.
Not this time.
Ashcraft retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced and quickly worked around a leadoff single by Moniak in the fourth. He breezed through the fifth before giving way to Chandler, the latest in a long string of young pitchers the Pirates have drafted and cultivated in recent years, led by reigning NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes.
While Chandler gave up hard contact a couple of times — including a leadoff double by Orlando Arcia shortly after entering in the sixth — he also struck out three and hit triple digits on the radar gun with his fastball several times.
Key moment
McCutchen wasted little time getting to Senzatela. He smacked a two-run double to center in the first and did it again in the second and Ashcraft made sure the big early lead didn’t go to waste.
Key stat
4 — the number of pitchers with four-inning save in their big-league debut since saves became an official stat.
Up next
The series continues Saturday when Pittsburgh’s Mike Burrows (1-4, 4.46 ERA) faces Colorado’s Kyle Freeland (13-12, 5.16).
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