{"id":246932,"date":"2026-07-18T23:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/246932\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T23:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:53:16","slug":"pittsburgh-pirates-vs-cleveland-guardians-braxton-ashcraft-vs-joey-cantillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/246932\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Cleveland Guardians: Braxton Ashcraft vs. Joey Cantillo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Pittsburgh Pirates are playing in a Saturday matinee matchup against the Cleveland Guardians in their first series back after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Braxton Ashcraft is taking the mound in his first start in the second half. Ashcraft finished the first half of the season with a start on July 11 at home against the Milwaukee Brewers. He pitched five innings and gave up five hits and five earned runs, but the Pirates rallied late with four runs in the seventh inning to beat their NL Central rival 7-6.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Ashcraft has arguably been the best starter for the Pirates so far this season. He is 9-3 with a 3.49 ERA. Pittsburgh has won each of Ashcraft\u2019s last five appearances, which sets him up well for today\u2019s game against the Guardians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Cleveland is handing the ball to a third-year pro, Joey Cantillo, who\u2019s 8-4 with a 3.56 ERA. Cantillo won his last start back on Sunday against the Miami Marlins, pitching five innings, giving up six hits and one run, and earning a 5-2 victory on the road. The Guardians are keeping Cantillo on his normal rest for this start, opting to give other starters more time to recover from the first half of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Location: Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH<\/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 (9-3, 3.49 ERA) vs. Joey Cantillo (8-4, 3.56 ERA)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">BD community, this is your gameday thread. Chime off in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates are playing in a Saturday matinee matchup against the Cleveland Guardians in their first series&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[66345,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-246932","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\/246932","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=246932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}