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Mercer, Harrison homer; Cole solid in Pittsburgh’s win over St. Louis

Pittsburgh Pirates' Jordy Mercer, right, is congratulated by teammate Andrew McCutchen (22) after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning on Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals. (AP)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordy Mercer and Josh Harrison homered and starter Gerrit Cole pitched six innings, lifting the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night.

Cole (6-6) extended his winning streak to three games, allowing five hits and one run with five strikeouts and two walks.

In Cole’s four losing starts from May 22 through June 8, he surrendered 23 runs in 19 1/3 innings. Since then, he has reeled off three solid starts. Before Saturday, he allowed just three hits and one run in seven innings in each of his previous two starts.

Pittsburgh has won four of its last six games.

Lance Lynn (5-5) struggled for the second consecutive start. He gave up seven runs and six hits, including three homers in 5 2/3 innings. In his previous start at Baltimore, Lynn gave up nine hits, seven runs and a season-high four home runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Before Saturday, Lynn had not allowed a run in his past 12 innings against the Pirates. He fired seven scoreless innings in a 2-1 win against Pittsburgh on April 17 at Busch Stadium.

Pittsburgh scored in the first on a two-out RBI single by Josh Bell that scored Harrison.

St. Louis quickly tied it at 1-all on Matt Carpenter’s first leadoff homer of the season. It was Carpenter’s 13th leadoff home run of his career.

The Pirates regained the lead at 3-1 on a two-run, two-out homer by Mercer. Andrew McCutchen singled before Mercer lined a fastball over the wall just inside the left field foul pole.

Pittsburgh has homered in a season-high nine consecutive games.

A two-out solo homer by Harrison in the fifth put Pittsburgh up 4-1.

The Pirates sent nine batters to the plate in the sixth and scored three runs on just one hit to chase Lynn. David Freese led off with a walk and went to third on a single by McCutchen before scoring on Mercer’s groundout. After intentionally walking Chris Stewart, Lynn walked Cole.

Rookie John Brebbia relieved and promptly hit Adam Frazier and Harrison to give Pittsburgh a 7-1 lead.

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