David Bote homered and right-hander Trevor Williams pitched six strong innings Wednesday as the visiting Chicago Cubs topped the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1.

Kris Bryant added two RBI singles for the Cubs, who won their third straight.

Williams (3-2), who spent the previous five seasons with the Pirates, gave up one run and three hits, with no walks and seven strikeouts. He also went 2-for-3 with a couple of base hits.

He turned it over to the Chicago bullpen, which extended its stretch without allowing an earned run to a team-record 32 2/3 innings over 10 games as Tommy Nance, Dan Winkler, Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel (11th save) brought it home.

Erik Gonzalez hit an RBI single for Pittsburgh, which has lost eight of its past nine.

Pirates starter Wil Crowe (0-3) lasted just 1 1/3 innings, giving up three runs and five hits, with two walks and a strikeout.

In the second, Rafael Ortega -- in his 2021 debut after being recalled from Triple-A Iowa earlier in the day with Nico Hoerner hurt -- drew a leadoff walk. Bote followed with his fourth homer, to center, for a 2-0 Chicago lead.

Eric Sogard kept the inning going when singled to center and moved to second on Williams' single to right. After Joc Pederson flied out, moving Sogard to third, Bryant's base hit to center drove in Sogard to make it 3-0.

Pittsburgh then pulled Crowe for reliever Duane Underwood Jr., who got out of the inning without any more damage.

That's how it stood until the sixth against Pirates reliever Chris Stratton. Sogard doubled to right with one out and went to third on Williams' single to center. After Pederson's pop foul out, Bryant singled to right to bring Sogard home for a 4-0 Cubs lead.

The Pirates, whose only hit through five innings was Ben Gamel's one-out triple in the first, finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth. Kevin Newman led off with a double down the line in left and scored on Gonzalez's single to right-center.

--Field Level Media