The Pittsburgh Pirates are still at PNC Park for a weekend series as they host the NL Central leader Milwaukee Brewers for a three-game set.<\/p>\n
The Pirates hope to start the series off strong with a win by handing the ball to Braxton Ashcraft, who is arguably Pittsburgh\u2019s best starter this season. Ashcraft has won his last four starts and is coming off a win against the Washington Nationals on July 4. He pitched 5.2 innings, giving up six hits and one earned run, and earned a 7-1 victory on Independence Day.<\/p>\n
The Brewers will counter with right-hander Brandon Sproat, who is making his 16th start of the year. Sprote is coming off a short start against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on July 5, where he pitched four innings and gave up five hits and one earned run. He was not part of the decision because he did not pitch long enough, but the Brewers picked up a 3-2 win. Milwaukee has won each of Sprote\u2019s last four starts, so they hope to continue their hot streak with him on the mound.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the final series before the All-Star break, and with the Pirates sitting at .500, this weekend is critical for Pittsburgh\u2019s playoff hopes.<\/p>\n
Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA<\/p>\n
Broadcast: KDKA AM\/FM, Sportsnet Pittsburgh<\/p>\n
Pitching Matchup: Brandon Sproat (3-4, 5.13 ERA) vs. Braxton Ashcraft (9-3, 3.24 ERA)<\/p>\n
BD community, chime off in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates are still at PNC Park for a weekend series as they host the NL Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[66345,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-240832","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\/240832","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=240832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}