{"id":235459,"date":"2026-07-04T14:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235459\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T14:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:36:08","slug":"pittsburgh-pirates-vs-washington-nationals-braxton-ashcraft-vs-zack-littell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235459\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Washington Nationals: Braxton Ashcraft vs. Zack Littell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Pittsburgh Pirates are celebrating the 4th of July by facing off against the Washington Nationals in the nation\u2019s capital. It\u2019s an early start for both teams to give fans an early and bright start to their Independence Day festivities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Braxton Ashcraft is taking the mound for the Pirates. He\u2019s won his last three starts, including his most recent appearance on June 29 against the Philadelphia Phillies, where he pitched six innings and gave up five hits and five runs. The Pirates\u2019 offense had his back in the 11-7 victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">He pitched against the Nationals at home on April 16, going 5.2 innings while giving up five hits and two runs in an 8-7 loss in 10 innings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Zack Littell is getting the ball for the Nationals in the middle game of the series. Littell won his last start on June 28 against the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched five innings, giving up three hits and two runs in a 6-4 victory at Camden Yards. The Nats are 9-8 this season when Littell pitches, and he has won seven of 13 decisions he has been a part of.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">If the Pirates play like they have in Ashcraft\u2019s last three starts, they should be able to walk away with a win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Location: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Broadcast: KDKA AM\/FM, Sportsnet Pittsburgh<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Pitching Matchup: Braxton Ashcraft (8-3, 3.33 ERA) vs. Zack Littell (7-6, 5.29 ERA)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">BD community, chime off in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates are celebrating the 4th of July by facing off against the Washington Nationals in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[66345,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-235459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pirates-discussion","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}