Pirates Unveil Starting Pitchers for Pivotal Yankees Series

Ashcraft comes back from a stellar first half, where he earned his first All-Star nod of his young MLB career.

It wasn't too surprising either, as he posted a 9-3 record in 19 starts, a 3.43 ERA over 113.1 innings pitched, 128 strikeouts to 27 walks, a .235 batting average allowed (BAA) and a 1.11 WHIP.

Ashcraft has met and exceeded all expectations, ranking in the top 15 pitchers in baseball in innings pitched and strikeouts, and had the best first half of any Pirates pitcher, including Paul Skenes.

Concerns about his innings workload will come the rest of the season, due to his lengthy injury history, but Ashcraft can begin his second half with a great outing vs. the Yankees to show the Pirates he's in for the long haul.

Can Chandler Find Consistency in Second Half?

The Pirates have hoped that Chandler can become a future ace in their rotation, but they didn't exactly get that from him in the first half of the season.

Chandler showed that he can put hitters away and has the stuff to do so, but the lack of consistency and struggles with command also posed an issue.

He posted a 3-8 record over 18 starts, a 4.77 ERA over 94.1 innings pitched, 85 strikeouts to 55 walks, a .230 BAA and a 1.45 WHIP.

Chandler leads all of baseball in walks issued and his 5.25 BB/9 is almost 100 points higher than the next pitcher, San Francisco left-hander Robbie Ray at 4.39. His 1.55 K/BB would also be the lowest in baseball if he were qualified.

He has performed better over his past seven outings, with a 4.34 ERA over 37.1 innings pitched, compared to his 5.05 ERA over his first 12 starts and 57.0 innings pitched.

Chandler has allowed two runs or less in five of those appearances and he's gone much deeper into games, figuring out how to best approach each team he faces.

It's not been easy for Chandler in his first season in the Pirates rotation, but there's promise and potential for him to really figure it all out this season and no better place to do that than Yankee Stadium.

Mitch Keller Needs to Get it Together Now

The Pirates were hoping they could rely on Keller for long outings and consistent starts, but he just hasn't done that the past two months.

Keller has posted a 2-6 record over his last 11 starts, a 7.03 ERA, with 44 earned runs allowed over 56.1 innings pitched, 11 home runs given up and 42 strikeouts to 21 walks.

His last start, coming in a 10-5 loss to the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park on July 9, was incredibly poor, giving up three runs and a home run and lasting just three innings and 72 pitches.

This will mark two weeks between these two outings and he'll go up against Cole, who the Pirates took first overall in the 2011 MLB Draft out of UCLA and pitched five seasons with the franchise from 2013-17 and is looking to get back to Cy Young form.

Keller just needs to get back to the form he showed earlier in the season, with a 4-1 record over his first eight starts, a 2.87 ERA and six quality starts (at least six innings pitched, three runs allowed or less).

He mentioned focusing on fixing his mechanics and figuring out what he needs in order to start pitching better again and the Pirates seriously need him to start doing that, especially against the Yankees.