Gerrit Cole (16-8) got his first chance to face Lackey on Sunday night and could not have been much better. The 24-year-old righty gave up two hits in seven scoreless innings, and the Pittsburgh Pirates used home runs from Aramis Ramirez, Sean Rodriguez and Starling Marte to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-1.

The second-place Pirates cut the Cardinals' lead in the NL Central to 5 1/2 games and earned their first series victory at Busch Stadium since April 2013. The teams are 8-8 against each other with one series to play at Pittsburgh in the final week of the season.

Even the 37-year-old Lackey was impressed with Cole, who threw a 99 mph fastball on his 94th pitch.

Lackey (11-9) pitched well, too, allowing three runs and 10 hits in 7 1-3 innings while extending his streak of quality starts at home to 15.

Cole also drove in his first run of the season with a two-out single over second baseman Kolten Wong in the seventh.