Pirates' Braxton Ashcraft hopes to hold down slumping Cards

As the St. Louis Cardinals are seeing this week, the Pittsburgh Pirates have plenty of excellent young pitching beyond Paul Skenes.

The Cardinals will get another glimpse of it Thursday afternoon in the finale of a four-game home series.

St. Louis won 7-6 on Monday before the Pirates won 8-3 behind Mitch Keller on Tuesday and 2-1 on Wednesday with Carmen Mlodzinski and top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler combining to pitch seven overpowering innings.

After Mlodzinski tossed three innings of one-run ball, Chandler yielded just one hit in four shutout innings and emerged with his first major league win.

Pittsburgh, which has won six of its last seven games, will start rookie Braxton Ashcraft (4-3, 2.70 ERA) to conclude the series. The right-hander allowed a total of one run on four hits in 10 innings over his past two starts. He struck out 10 and walked one during that span.

In his latest outing, Ashcraft threw five scoreless innings, then Chandler threw four innings in his major league debut to complete the Pirates' 9-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Friday. They combined on a three-hitter with one walk and nine strikeouts.

"My goodness, with (Ashcraft) starting and being as good as he was and then Bubba coming in behind, I mean, you talk about efficient and dominating the strike zone, both of those guys, that's a bright future right there," Pirates manager Don Kelly said.

Ashcraft will be making his first career appearance against the Cardinals.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol is looking for a more robust response to Pittsburgh's power pitching.

"We're not hitting fastballs very good, and they kept throwing them," Marmol said. "Overall, you look at some of the guys in our lineup and that's been their struggle, just production on the fastball. It's not a secret and guys continue to ramp that up against us, and we have to figure out a way to combat it and start to move that forward."

The Cardinals, who have lost four of their past five games, will give Miles Mikolas (6-10, 5.17 ERA) another opportunity. Mikolas has a 7.27 ERA in four August starts.

The right-hander lasted just 2 2/3 innings in his most recent start, a 10-6 loss at Tampa Bay on Friday. Mikolas allowed five runs (four earned) on 10 hits, including two homers, against the Rays.

"A lot of contact, obviously," Marmol said after that game. "Eleven out of 16 balls in play on the ground, and usually that's a good thing for him. A lot of them found holes. Some of them were too soft to make plays on. And the ones hit in the air left the yard."

In his earlier start against the Pirates this season, Mikolas allowed three runs on four hits and three walks in five innings during a no-decision on May 5. He is 5-6 with a 3.00 ERA in 24 career appearances against Pittsburgh, including 21 starts.

The Cardinals adjusted their bullpen on Wednesday, returning veteran left-hander John King to the injured list due to a back sprain and recalling Andre Granillo from Triple-A Memphis.

--Field Level Media