Pirates vs. Braves Game Highlights (6/6/26) | MLB Highlights

Yesterday the Braves are 6-3 winners. They are 10-1 in series openers here at home. They have a chance to win another series today. It's going to be an exciting day today with Spencer Strider on the mound against Braxton Ashcroft. Really good pitching matchup. And it's a Strider Saturday. Seventh start of the season for number 99. And he's been excellent. 3.770 or 8. The only thing that's been a little bit high, that walk rate. 13.4% walk rate. That currently would be a career high. Horwitz, 11 for 18 in his career against Braves pitching. Swinging the ground ball deep in the hole to short pass. And in the left, a base hit for Spencer Horwitz. And there's another hit for Horwitz. 12 for 19 against Braves pitching. Horwitz at first with nobody out here in the top of the first. And now two strikes on Lowe. Down he goes. Swinging over the top of a curve ball. The whiff rate on that pitch. Third best among starters behind Ben Brown and Jacob DeGrom. Two outs. Now Ryan O'Hearn who ended the game last night. Hitting the air towards right center field. Ronald Acuna. Caught off by Mauricio Dubon. And in right center he makes the catch. So a lead off single. Nothing beyond that for the Pirates. Pirates have, should we say their ace? Or one of their aces on the mound today for sure. One of the best pitchers in all of Major League Baseball. Braxton Ashcraft. Toes to the rubber for the Bucs. The thing about Braxton and the Braves know this. Braxton goes right after hitters and fills up the strike zone. So I expect to see a lot of aggressive Braves hitters. First and second pitches of the at bats here. Back to back singles by Acuna and Dubon. And the Braves sitting pretty early. Now it's Ozzie Albies. Switch hitter batting left. Dubon takes off. And it's lined out to center towards Cruz. So Dubon will backpedal. But Acuna will score the first run of the ball game. So that's the first time that Ashcraft has ever allowed a run in the first inning. That was RBI number 35 of the season for Ozzie Albies. Dominick was 0 for 3 last night. Did have a sack fly and drove in a run. Don Smith line drive base hit. Braves some pretty good swings here in the first inning against a good pitcher. So they're at first and second. Two down for Austin Riley who had a big hit last night. Another base hit should mean another run. Braves leading 1-0. He swings and way lays it down the left field line. That will rattle the corner. Coming around to score. Dubon running into a stop sign. Dominick Smith. RBI double Austin Riley. That was smoke down the line. And it's 2-0 Braves. In this series he's had two of the best swings he's had in the last month. Just not used to seeing this at all. Any time. Let alone the first inning from Ashcraft. Four hits in his first inning. And now two in scoring position for Jastrzemski. Strike three call. Jastrzemski wants to challenge this. This is called a strike. The batter is challenged. And not a good challenge for the party of Jastrzemski and the Atlanta Braves. But they score twice and lead 2-0. This guy's hot as a pistol. Two for two in this game. That is his fourth hit in the series. And the way it's going right now if you're the opposition, you're just glad he didn't hit it over the wall. Remember Ashcraft just four pitches in the second. Braves making him work a little harder here so far in the third. Swing and a miss. Struck him out. Ninety-nine. So Ashcraft has fanned Olsen twice. One out and Ozzie Albies coming to bat. Takes a strike on the inside corner here. That will be challenged by Ozzie Albies. The Braves have already lost one challenge. Call us confirmed. Atlanta's out of challenges. Here in the third inning of this game. I wonder if it will matter. Ozzie takes that one low to that. Check his swing. He did not go. And it did hit him in the foot. And he gets first base. Great job of holding his swing back. Getting himself a painful trip to first base. They're at first and second with one out. Dominick had a single in the first inning. In the air to center field. Deep. Crews back. Casually a 6-7 frame up to get it. Well done. O'Neal made that one look easy. That's not an easy catch right there. First and third for Austin Riley. It's one for one with an RBI double. Taken off for second base. Oh the Braves are going to get a run out of this. Risky play by Rodriguez. And that brings Dubon home from third to make it three to nothing. Dubon broke to the plate. The second indy Rodriguez cut it loose to second. That's just great hustle. Absolute worst case scenario. Run comes in. Runner's not out. Ball goes in the outfield. Now Ozzie Albies standing on third base. Swinging a weak ground ball onto third. And Callahan. Has it cleanly and on to first for the out. And the inning is over. The Braves literally steal a run. Ryder enjoyed a one, two, three, third, nine pitches. Reynolds flied to left his first time up. Ryan O'Hearn on deck. That's crack to right center field. A line drive. Off the wall. And Reynolds will post into second base. With a lead off double. I was just getting ready to say this is the ending. The Pirates really want to try and get some traffic out there on the base pass. This is the second time through the order here. With the heart of the Pirates order coming up. We need to push one or two across. Line drive left field base hit. That will do it. Nick Gonzalez is going to get the Pirates on the board. He's racing into second base. He's there with a stand up RBI double. It's 3-1. Nicky G. Again another breaking ball from Strider to Nick Gonzalez. But he does a nice job going out getting around it. This one hung up. Eight game hitting streak for him. A little bit low. Ball four. Cruz will accept a second walk today. Two are out. Tyler Callahan is coming up. He was here last year with the Reds as a rookie. Broke his forearm. And after this play he would miss the rest of the season. It was just his fourth big league game. This is just his eighth big league game. So it goes from the Reds to the Pirates. Heals that forearm. And now back at the major league level. Ozzie looked like he had this one. It feels like he's made every one of these catches this year. Just off the end of that glove. And folks we can assure you. That when Ozzie gets back into the dugout. Matt Olsen is going to say if you were a little bit taller. You would have caught that baseball. In the dirt. Triolo moves up on a wild pitch. And now a base hit could tie it. To Matt Caps's point. We've got to get these guys. Right now. Before that bullpen. Comes into play. And the Braves are leading. And that's a nice job. At least to get that runner to third. And a man at third with less than two outs. For Lau. Swinging a fly ball. Now center field should be deep enough. Dubon backtracking. That guarantees it. And Lau gets the job done. Sacrifice fly. Triolo is in. Pirates tie it at three. Seven hits now. Given up by Braxton Ashcraft. Here we are with one out in the fifth inning. And it matches those hits he's allowed. Twice previously. Seven hits in the game. Braves have them at first and second. With one down for Ozzie Albies. Both runners take off. And then it's going to get by Rodriguez. So they cruise in easily. Some aggressive base running here today. Puts them in a great spot here. The Braves are going to get that lead right back. Twisting around O'Hearn makes a catch. Both runners up 90 feet. Four to three. They're pressing all the right buttons right now. Ozzie's second RBI today. He also had a sack fly in the first inning. We're going to tag on another run here. Braves scored one of those two runs. With two down back in the first inning. He sends it deep down the left field line. Slicing to the corner. At the foul pole. Homerun. It's out of here. Dominick cranks up the power here in the bottom of the fifth inning. As he just sneaks it inside the foul pole. That is his sixth homer of the season. And the Braves have a 6-3 lead here in the fifth. And now in the center of the diamond, the birthday boy. 28 today. The lefty Dylan Dodd. And it's a good start to the birthday for Dodd. He strikes out O'Hearn. Always dominated righties. And now he's going to start working on something to get these lefties out. A little more horizontal movement to that breaking ball. That one looked perfect. And another strikeout. There's the cutter. Taking care of Gonzalez. And he strikes out the side. Happy birthday Dylan Dodd. And the Braves swap Dylan's on the mound. From Dylan Dodd to Dylan Lee. Not too many teams can do this, right? With lefties that are having these kind of years, obviously. Some fun first names that go along with it as well. Nice job by Callahan. And three strong at-bats. Leadoff walk. There goes Callahan. Pitches a ball in the dirt. It's a stolen base for Tyler Callahan. His first in the major leagues. Two and two still here to Triolo. Triolo corks this out to left center. Good play by Yastrzemski. Now the runner will advance. Wasn't sure with the route, but he was able to get there off the bat. I thought that might have been over his head. I thought it had a chance to get out of here off the bat. One down for Spencer Horwich. One-two got him swinging. Smoked him with a fastball there. Big strikeout for Lee. Two down. Now two outs for Lau. Got him with a lunge. Big slider for strike three. The Pirates aren't able to cash in as Lee strikes out Horwich and Lau. Wondered about Robert Suarez, right? So clearly you try to stay away from him today. And this is the luxury of the Braves bullpen. That you can go to an arm like Tyler Kinley instead here in the eighth inning and feel pretty good about it. Tough assignment here, right? Middle of the lineup and a couple of lefties or switch hitter and a lefty to kind of kick things off. And Cruz is coming up representing the tying run here in the eighth. He's walked three times. Kinley's three-two. Check swing. They appeal. Strike three. They got him. A slider by Kinley and O'Neal Cruz just couldn't help himself. Went a little bit too far. So in that trip to the plate, he burned their final ABS challenge and strikes out. That's a huge out. Two down now for Indy Rodriguez. He still represents the tying run, but you'd much rather face Indy Rodriguez than O'Neal Cruz. These Pirates have had so many opportunities today. They are two for ten with runners in scoring position this game. Swung on at a fly ball towards shallow right center field. Four Braves in the neighborhood. It's Dubon who comes through. And the Pirates are denied. Iglesias pitched in 19 games so far this season with a .92 ERA. He's a perfect going back to last season. He's converted 30 consecutive saves. He's one of the best in the game. Looking to lock this one down. So here's Brandon Lau. He's 0-3 in his career versus Iglesias. And he stands as the final hope for the Pirates. Fouled off his foot, and that topples him over in pain. I mean, that was like a hammer coming down on his leg. It's got to be tough for Brandon Lau. He's had at least one IL stint each of the last four seasons. He's been able to stay healthy so far in 2026 for the Pirates, but this does not look great, unfortunately. You hate to see that. So Garcia is going to come in here with two down and a 1-2 count at the top of the ninth. Iglesias trying to close the door on the Pirates here on this Saturday. That will keep stacking up series wins. The Braves have won 18 of the 21 series they have played this year, and they'll be going for a sweep tomorrow.