Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates

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.