With Deadline rapidly approaching, Pirates stay on course to be buyers

PITTSBURGH -- The final week of July can often decide whether teams identify themselves as buyers or sellers at the Trade Deadline. At times, the pressure can mount, building a losing streak. For a few days, it seemed the Pirates were headed in that direction.

Then came an offensive outburst to serve as a skid stopper. Pittsburgh defeated the Cubs, 8-7, on Sunday at PNC Park to win the series finale and snap a three-game losing streak – its longest since early June.

“There's been a few stints this year where we've kind of slid a little bit, and this clubhouse doesn't ever look at it as a slide,” starter Braxton Ashcraft said postgame “… I think that moving forward, looking toward the back half of the season, that's going to be the strength of this team, and I imagine we'll look up and find ourselves in a really good spot at the end of September.”

As the NL Wild Card race tightens up and the schedule nears August, the Pirates are directly in the middle of it, making them expected buyers ahead of the Aug. 3 Deadline.

“We're at a point in the season now where it's a pretty good foundation. We know a lot about the team. It's hard to imagine that much would happen in the next week to eight days that would really shift it in one way or another,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said pregame on Sunday.

“I think we're pretty well into it by now. So, I think it's pretty clear what we're going to try to do, and I don't expect that an outcome day to day between now and then is going to change it much.”

The Cubs took an early 1-0 lead with an RBI single from Dansby Swanson. Ashcraft tallied 44 pitches through two innings while allowing two hits and walking two batters. The All-Star surpassed his 2025 innings total on Sunday, reaching 122 1/3 for the season.

Pittsburgh quickly tied the game in the bottom half of the inning with a solo homer from Esmerlyn Valdez, his 14th in 37 games. Shawn Ross then followed that up with a 438-foot blast to take a 3-1 lead off Jameson Taillon for his first career home run.

As Ashcraft cruised through the third, Ryan O’Hearn added plenty of cushion. On his 33rd birthday, O’Hearn came to the plate with bases loaded and delivered with a home run to right-center field, building a six-run lead.

The Cubs scored three in the fourth to cut into the deficit, but Ashcraft found his groove and went six innings to turn a four-run lead over to the bullpen after an RBI single by Valdez in the fifth. Carmen Mlodzinski allowed one run in two innings and Mason Montgomery gave up a two-run homer in the ninth but still closed the door.

“That was a big win today,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “...The guys in the clubhouse have earned this spot, and to be in this position, to be in the race, they've earned the pressure, and I think that we're starting to see guys learn how to adjust to that.”

With eight days until the Trade Deadline, the needed upgrades are fairly obvious. Pittsburgh has proven to be a possible playoff team, even with injuries to key contributors. But the Pirates will be looking to improve their bullpen and lack of bats that can hit left-handed starting pitching. Cherington said in terms of flexibility to make moves, he’s not worried about being limited.

On Sunday, the Pirates on the field did their job again to stay in the fight. Now, Cherington feels it’s on him and his staff to do the same.

“We have the resources to win games and be playing baseball in October,” Cherington said. “We have to go do our jobs, and I don't think anything's changed. We believe this team is capable of doing that. We gotta continue to do the work to actually make that a reality.”