Marcell Ozuna and Braxton Ashcraft lead the Pirates to a series win over Cardinals

Colin Beazley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 21, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

ST. LOUIS — Just like that, the Pittsburgh Pirates have wrested momentum back.

The Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals handily again at Busch Stadium on Thursday afternoon, defeating the Redbirds 6-2 behind seven strong innings from Braxton Ashcraft, a home run from Brandon Lowe and a two-hit, two-RBI day from Marcell Ozuna.

Henry Davis added a homer in the seventh inning, snapping an 0 for 17 skid. Konnor Griffin scored two more runs, bringing his total to six in the series.

The Pirates have now won their first four road series against all four National League Central opponents. They’ve taken two of three in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis, though they remain tied with the Reds at the bottom of the NL Central.

Ashcraft struck out nine Cardinals, tying a career high, and allowed just four hits and two walks. He allowed a solo homer to Ivan Herrera in the third and an Alec Burleson double immediately after, then retired 12 of the next 13 with the lone exception a Masyn Winn walk. Ashcraft didn’t allow another hit until the seventh.

And the Pirates gave him support. Lowe, the second batter of the game, hit a fly ball down the left-field line against Cardinals starter Dustin May that bounced off the top of the wall.

After Herrera’s homer tied the game in the third, a Jake Mangum fielder’s choice scored Griffin in the fourth. Ozuna, running from first, avoided a tag just long enough for Mangum to reach first.

Ozuna added a two-run single in the sixth, helping to chase May. Davis’ homer, on the first pitch Justin Bruihl threw in the seventh, and an RBI groundout from Bryan Reynolds ended the scoring.

It was over when ...

... Wilber Dotel got out of an eighth-inning jam. Dotel came on for the eighth and was likely expected to finish the game but ran into some trouble with three consecutive one-out singles, including Jordan Walker’s RBI knock. But with two runners on, Dotel struck out Nolan Gorman and Winn to end the threat and keep the Pirates ahead by four.

Mason Montgomery pitched the ninth and allowed a single but rolled a double play to end it.

On the mound

Interestingly, Ashcraft threw primarily sliders. Of his 98 pitches (including 68 strikes), 33 were sliders compared to 29 four-seamers. He had three strikeouts on the four-seam and four on the slider.

Ashcraft recorded 20 outs (6 2/3 innings or more) for the fourth consecutive outing. No Pirate has done that since Joe Musgrove in 2018.

At the plate

After consecutive shutout losses against the Phillies on the weekend, the Pirates racked up double-digit hits in all three games in St. Louis. They had six runs on 10 hits on Thursday, leaving just six runners on base.

Lowe went 2 for 3 with a walk. Oneil Cruz struck out in his first three plate appearances but doubled off Bruihl in the seventh and scored on Reynolds’ groundout.

Most valuable player

Ashcraft, who lowered his May ERA to 1.91 in four starts this month.

Up next

The Pirates head across the northern border for the weekend, traveling to Canada for a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays starting on Friday night at 7:07 p.m. ET. Bubba Chandler (1-5, 5.14 ERA) will start for the Pirates against Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman (3-3, 3.45).

____