Braxton Ashcraft won his fourth consecutive start and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Washington Nationals 7-1 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Henry Davis and Brandon Lowe both drove in two runs for Pittsburgh, which got back to .500 at 45-45 after dropping three of its past four.<\/p>\n
Pirates rookie Konnor Griffin stole home<\/a> as part of a double steal with two outs in the first inning to open the scoring. Griffin earlier stole second after a leadoff single and the Pirates had four stolen bases for the game. <\/p>\n James Wood hit a leadoff homer for the Nationals, whose three-game winning streak ended.<\/p>\n Ashcraft (9-3) allowed a run and six hits in 5 2\/3 innings and struck out seven. The 26-year-old right-hander has a 3.04 ERA and 32 strikeouts in four starts since June 17 and has won eight of his past nine decisions.<\/p>\n With the game tied 1-1, Nationals opener Carson Palmquist (0-1) loaded the bases with none out in the second before yielding to Zack Littell. <\/p>\n Davis then drove in a run<\/a> with an infield single, and Lowe added a two-run single<\/a> two batters later. Esmerlyn Valdez made it 5-1<\/a> with a run-scoring single later in the inning.<\/p>\n Littell gave up a run in six innings while striking out three.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh added two runs in the eighth against Riley Cornelio on Nick Gonzales’ RBI single and Davis’ bases-loaded walk.<\/p>\n