Jeimer Candelario's homer, Cody Bellinger's 5 RBIs boost Cubs to lopsided win over Pirates

The Chicago Cubs signaled they were making a chase for the NL Central title by trading for Jeimer Candelario at the deadline, reacquiring the hot-hitting corner infielder for a potential playoff run.

Candelario continues to pay dividends, batting .305 with with 11 extra-base hits and 11 RBIs in 23 games since joining the Cubs. That includes a two-run home run to break a tie score against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fourth inning Sunday afternoon.

The Cubs’ top offseason acquisition, Cody Bellinger, drew MVP chants from fans after going 3 for 5 with two doubles and five RBIs, as the Cubs won 10-1 before 19,154 at PNC Park.

After splitting a pair of one-run games to start the series, the Cubs (69-61) finished strong by scoring 10 runs in each of the final two games of the series. Six of Chicago’s 10 hits Sunday went for extra bases, including five doubles.

“We didn’t play well,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We’ve played pretty well over the last 15, 16 games. Today, we didn’t play well. We just didn’t execute. We didn’t do a lot of things well. Sometimes you’re gonna have games like that. We just have to flush it and move on to Kansas City.”

The fourth-place Pirates (58-73) begin a six-game road trip against a pair of last-place teams, starting Monday with a three-game series at the Kansas City Royals followed by the St. Louis Cardinals.

Where Cubs starter Javier Assad allowed three hits over seven innings, Shelton dwelled on the fact that Bellinger and Candelario came through for the Cubs with two outs and two strikes against Pirates lefty starter Bailey Falter (1-8).

“Two-out base hits are what killed him,” Shelton said. “He was a pitch away both times. He got Candelario to two strikes and two outs and executes a pitch. He gets Bellinger to two strikes and two outs. He did a good enough job to get himself to two strikes. He just didn’t finish hitters today. That’s what ended up being the determining factor.”

For the second time this series, Nico Hoerner started the game with a leadoff double and scored on a single to left by Bellinger to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead. They combined to do the same Thursday in a 5-4 win over the Pirates in 11 innings. Hoerner and Bellinger had three hits each.

Ji Hwan Bae answered with a leadoff double to the right-center gap for the Pirates, advanced to third on Bryan Reynolds’ groundout to first base and scored when Ke’Bryan Hayes grounded out to second to tie it at 1-1.

Falter got through the next two innings on 24 pitches but ran into trouble in the fourth. Falter walked Seiya Suzuki, then surrendered a two-out, two-run shot to Candelario, who hit a full-count slider 396 feet to left field for his 19th home run and a 3-1 lead.

The Pirates stranded a runner at third in the fourth, when Joshua Palacios hit a leadoff single, stole second base and reached third on a wild pitch. Assad got Connor Joe to pop up to short, then got Jack Suwinski and Liover Peguero looking at called third strikes.

The Cubs stretched their lead to 5-1 in the fifth, when Hoerner and Dansby Swanson hit back-to-back singles, completed a double steal and scored on Bellinger’s two-out double to right-center.

That was it for Falter, who allowed six runs on seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. He was replaced by righty reliever Cody Bolton, only for Suzuki to double to right to drive in Bellinger to extend the Cubs’ lead to 6-1.

“They’re a pretty chippy team,” Falter said. “I feel like I got to 0-2, 1-2 pretty quick. They had a lot of foul balls, and I feel like they were just waiting for me to make a mistake. I feel like I made a few today.”

Bolton, who drove in from Indianapolis on Sunday morning after being recalled for the sixth time this season, struck out four of the next six batters in tossing 2 1/3 scoreless innings before the Pirates turned to lefty Jose Hernandez.

Suzuki led off the eighth with his second double, tagged to third when Yan Gomes flied out to center and beat Hernandez’s throw and slid under catcher Jason Delay’s tag on a roller to the mound by Candelario for a 7-1 lead.

After Hoerner and Ian Happ reached on singles in the ninth, Bellinger drove in both with a double to left that ricocheted off the crooked corner to score both runners and extend the Cubs’ lead to 9-1.

Assad (3-2) allowed three hits and two walks while striking out seven in seven innings. The Pirates managed only two hits over Assad’s final six innings.

“He did a nice job executing the cutter and kind of kept us off-balance,” Shelton said. “After the game got to four or five runs, we just had some young at-bats.”

The Pirates didn’t fare much better against Cubs reliever Keegan Thompson. After striking out the side in the eighth, Thompson gave up a one-out single to Palacios in the ninth before striking out pinch hitter Vinny Capra and Suwinski to finish it.

“I think at times we get too passive,” Shelton said. “We look at pitches that are called strikes that may not be, and people get criticized for it. With young players, we have to have that fine line between being passive and being aggressive. Today, we got executed against. As good as our young hitters have been at times, I think we saw some young at-bats today.”