The Pirates headed down to Texas for a three-game set with the Rangers looking to keep things rolling, but Game 1 quickly turned into one of those nights where things just never seemed to bounce their way.
They got off to about as strong of a start as you could ask for. Oneil Cruz led the game off with a single, immediately put pressure on the defense by stealing second base, and then took third on the throw. Just like that, the tone was set. On a 3-0 pitch to Ryan O'Hearn, he roped a single right back up the middle and the Pirates had a quick 1-0 lead before Texas could even settle in.
With a start like that, it felt like the Pirates were in store for a strong offensive night, but that would end up being the only run they pushed across all game. After being spotted that early lead, Carmen Mlodzinski gave it back pretty quickly in the bottom half of the second inning. A leadoff single from Joc Pederson and a double from Josh Jung put traffic on the bases right away, and Evan Carter followed it up with a single to tie the game. The Rangers grabbed the lead later in that inning on a sacrifice fly from Josh Smith, and just like that the Pirates were playing from behind.
The moment of the game came in the fifth inning, and unfortunately for the Pirates it completely flipped the night. Still trailing 2-1 with two on and two out, Cruz stepped in and absolutely crushed a ball to deep center field that looked like it was going to keep carrying into the bullpen. Instead, Carter tracked it down, went up and over the wall, and robbed him of a three-run homer. What looked like a 4-2 Pirates lead turned into the same 2-1 deficit in an instant, and from that point on you could feel the momentum shift.
If that didn’t tell the story of the night, the bottom half of the inning did. The Rangers came right back and tagged the Pirates for three more runs, stretching the lead to 5-1 and putting the game out of reach. That score would hold as final, with Mlodzinski finishing with 4.1 innings pitched, six hits, five earned runs, six strikeouts, and two walks in his first tough outing of the year. After the electric start, the Pirates bats went quiet and never found a way to respond, and they ended up being the only team in the NL Central to drop a game that night.
Looking to bounce back and keep their recent trend alive of responding immediately after a loss, the Pirates turned to Texas native Braxton Ashcraft in Game 2, as he got the start in front of about 150 friends and family members in attendance. Early on, this one started playing out eerily similar to the opener. The Pirates grabbed a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single from Marcell Ozuna, and once again the Rangers answered in the second, this time on a two-run blast from Jung to take a 2-1 lead. Just like the night before, the game sat at 2-1 as it moved into the fifth inning and it felt like it might be heading down that same path.
This time, the Pirates made sure it didn’t.
With two outs in the fifth, Brandon Lowe came through with a big hit to tie the game at two, and Bryan Reynolds followed it up with a hit of his own that brought home two more and gave the Pirates a 4-2 lead. They were even able to get that fourth run across on a freak play, as Jack Leiter tried to retrieve a wild throw from the outfield and tripped over equipment near the on-deck circle, appearing to hyperextend his knee in the process. The ball got away just enough for Lowe to come all the way around and score, stealing a run that completely shifted the feel of the game.
Ashcraft delivered one of the best outings of his career in front of his friends and family, tossing seven complete innings while allowing just two runs on four hits with five strikeouts and two walks. He had everything working and set the Pirates up exactly how you would want, with the bullpen ready to take over late. He has been on another level so far in 2026 and continues to fly under the radar as one of the more underrated arms in the game.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t pick up the win on the stat sheet. Gregory Soto had his first real shaky outing of the season in the eighth inning and allowed the Rangers to tie the game at four. The rally started in a way that still feels strange to say, as Andrew McCutchen got it going for Texas with a sharply hit ball on the ground that Konnor Griffin managed to keep in the infield, but McCutchen beat the throw easily. Later in the inning, with two outs, Jake Burger dropped a soft single into center field and two runs came around to score to even things up.
The difference in this one was the response. Instead of letting the game slip away, the Pirates came right back in the ninth inning. This was something that recent Pirates teams would never do. Nick Gonzales led things off with a base hit, and Spencer Horwitz followed with an absolute screamer to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Griffin had a tough at-bat that ended in a strikeout, but Jake Mangum picked him up by simply putting the ball in play and letting things happen. He chopped a dribbler to third that created just enough chaos for Gonzales to beat the throw to the plate, giving the Pirates a 5-4 lead on what Greg Brown called “Mangum Mayhem.”
Then came the swing that put it away. After getting robbed the night before, Cruz got all of his redemption in one swing. Facing another left-handed pitcher, he launched a ball that left no doubt, sending it off the very top of the foul pole in right field for a three-run homer. Yes, the top of the foul pole. It was an absolute missile and a perfect response after what happened in Game 1, blowing the game open and pushing the Pirates to an 8-4 lead.
Dennis Santana handled the rest from there, shutting things down in the ninth inning and locking in the win as the Pirates evened the series heading into the finale.
Game Three, however, was a disappointment. Bubba Chandler followed one of the best starts of his career with a dud, giving up 6 earned runs on seven hits and three walks in just four innings. The Bucs only managed to push across one run against Jacob Degrom, which was on yet another missile by Oneil Cruz, his eighth of the year. Nick Gonzalez tallied two more hits, but besides that, the Bucs simply didn’t have an answer for the Rangers’ pitching in this one, striking out a whopping 13 times. On a positive note, the low-leverage relief crew did a great job this game, as Evan Sisk, Justin Lawrence, and Yohan Ramirez gave the Bucs four clean innings.
Konnor Griffin had a rough series, going hitless. His OPS drops below .500, but if there’s anyone to bet on to turn it around fast, it’s him.
Oneil Cruz secures the MVP of this series, providing basically all the offense in games two and three while scoring the only run in game one.
Griffin and the Bucs look to bounce back versus the Brewers this weekend, as Paul Skenes will take the bump tonight versus the rival Brewers. In an extremely competitive NL Central, this will be the most important series of the year so far.
