Pittsburgh's Adam Frazier and Ke'Bryan Hayes led off the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back homers off Kyle Hendricks as the last-place Pirates slipped by the postseason-bound Cubs 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Chicago clinched a spot on Tuesday night and have a healthy 3 1/2-game lead over St. Louis and Cincinnati in the NL Central with four days left in the regular season. Still, the Cubs have dropped four of five because they are struggling to generate runs, scoring two runs or less in each of the losses.

A situation the Cubs are in thanks in large part to Hendricks (6-5). He put together another solid outing, giving up just two runs over 7 2/3 innings but his unbeaten September came to a halt with two first-inning swings by the top of Pittsburgh's lineup.

Frazier turned on the fourth pitch he saw from Hendricks and sent it to the railing atop the seats in right field and Hayes continued his impressive rookie season when he followed with his fourth of the season, a lined shot to right-center field. Frazier and Hayes became the first Pirate teammates to lead off the game with consecutive home runs since Jose Tabata and Neil Walker did it on Sept. 20, 2013.

Richard Rodriguez worked the ninth for his fourth save, striking out Ian Happ with a runner on second at the end of a nine-pitch at-bat.

Cameron Maybin doubled twice for the Cubs but Chicago managed just five hits total and went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and left at least one runner on base in each of the last four innings.

Alec Mills (5-4, 4.14 ERA) will make his final start of the regular season in the series finale on Thursday.

Chad Kuhl (1-3, 5.03) is 1-2 with a 3.38 ERA in his last seven starts for Pittsburgh.