Pirates 7, Cubs 3: Jordy Mercer went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and Gerrit Cole remained unbeaten against Chicago as host Pittsburgh padded its lead in the race for the National League's second wild card.

Josh Harrison went 3-for-4 and scored twice while Neil Walker had two hits and two RBIs for the Pirates, who moved two games ahead of Milwaukee for the final wild card and pulled within two games of NL Central leader St. Louis. Cole (9-5) struck out six and allowed three runs on five hits over six innings to move to 5-0 all-time against the Cubs.

Rookies Javier Baez and Arismendy Alcantara each hit solo homers for the Cubs, who have been outscored 55-13 during a seven-game losing streak. Tsuyoshi Wada (4-3) gave up four runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings to take the loss.

Chris Stewart gave the Pirates the lead in the second with an RBI bloop single and Walker added a run-scoring single in the third to make it 2-0. Baez's blast to left cut the deficit in half in the fourth, but Mercer's RBI single restored the two-run margin in the bottom of the inning.

Alcantara's solo shot cut it to 3-2, but the Pirates answered again with an Ike Davis sacrifice fly in the bottom of the frame. Chicago again cut the lead to one on Welington Castillo's RBI single in the sixth, but Mercer grounded a two-run single through a drawn-in infield in the bottom of the sixth to make it 6-3 and Walker added an RBI single in the eighth.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Harrison raised his average to .318 to take over the NL batting lead. … Cubs rookie RF Jorge Soler traveled to Miami for the birth of his first child and is expected to rejoin the club Monday. … Pirates LF Starling Marte sat out a day after leaving Thursday's game with a sore left arm when he was hit by a pitch.