A year later, Ashcraft delivers another gem for late grandma

ARLINGTON -- It didn’t dawn on Reds starting pitcher Graham Ashcraft until he got on the bus and headed to Globe Life Field on Friday afternoon. April 26 is the same day he faced the Texas Rangers during the 2023 season, an emotional outing two days after his grandmother had passed away.

“There were a lot of emotions on this day last year,” Ashcraft said. “This year was a little bit easier to know like, ‘All right, she’s with me.’ I knew I had to go out and do my best. That’s all I could do.”

Ashcraft knows he made his grandmother proud with his performance in the Reds’ 2-1 loss to the Rangers. He went a season-best 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run on seven hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Ashcraft did not factor into the decision, and his only mistake was leaving a cutter down and in to Evan Carter, who sent the pitch over the right-center-field fence to start the second inning.

Outside of that, Ashcraft couldn’t have asked for a much better night. He kept his personal emotions in check as he faced his late grandma’s favorite team. His grandmother, Theresa Ann Ashcraft, lived in nearby Fort Worth.

Ashcraft kept his competitive emotions in check, too, in what he described as “one of the loudest games I’ve pitched in.”

“If that’s what playoff baseball feels like, I mean, that’s a hell of a game,” he said. “That was fun to be a part of and fun to experience.”

It helped that Ashcraft had his best performance of the season. It was his first start without issuing a walk and the fewest runs he’s allowed.

He worked out of jams throughout the night, too. In the third, he gave up a leadoff double to Leody Taveras and then retired the next three batters. He induced an inning-ending double-play groundout in the fourth inning, and got another double-play groundout after giving up an infield single to start the sixth.

Ashcraft retired the first batter of the seventh before giving up a double to Josh Smith. Manager David Bell turned to the bullpen after Smith’s double, although Ashcraft could have stayed in with his pitch count at 89.

“He was getting a little fatigued, just that many ups and downs going into the seventh inning,” Bell said. “But, he was very efficient. That’s the one thing about that [cutter], he gets a lot of ground balls with it and can get the early outs. Later in the season, that’s probably what’s going to lead to some complete games for Graham.”

Ashcraft felt like he had everything working for him, starting with the cutter. He also mixed in his sinker and changeup.

“It was just a good night overall with the stuff tonight,” Ashcraft said.

Along with Ashcraft, the Reds had additional individual progress in the loss. Spencer Steer reached base in his first three plate appearances, including a single in the third inning that ended an 0-for-18 slump.

Elly De La Cruz and Steer had a successful double steal in the first inning as well, with De La Cruz stealing home and Steer stealing second. It was the second steal of home by the Reds this month, the first time the organization has had two steals of home in the same calendar month since April 1978 (Joe Morgan, April 17 at the Dodgers, and Pete Rose, April 30 at the Mets).

Overall, though, the Reds’ offense struggled to get much going against Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi. They drew five walks but finished the night 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base. The Reds didn’t have any batters reach the final three innings against the Rangers’ bullpen.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get it done tonight, but we will in the future,” Bell said. “We’ll continue to work and look for those opportunities. Our guys will come through. It does say a lot for Eovaldi, their guy was outstanding. He’s got four pitches that he can throw at any time and has great movement on those pitches, able to pitch around the walks.”