In the bottom of the fifth inning Wednesday, before the Cincinnati Reds earned a 5-3 walk-off win to complete a three-game sweep, Manager David Bell asked Graham Ashcraft if he was OK to pitch another inning.
There was no hesitation in Ashcraft’s response.
“I was like, ‘I’m not coming out. I’m going,’ ” Ashcraft said.
He felt it’s what his grandma would have wanted.
Ashcraft’s grandmother, Theresa Ann Ashcraft, died Monday at 82 years old. A Fort Worth, Texas, native, she was a big Texas Rangers fan until Ashcraft was drafted by the Reds in 2019.