Pirates 1, Braves 0: Andrew McCutchen blasted a solo homer in the sixth inning and Francisco Liriano improved to 4-0 in September as visiting Pittsburgh continued its playoff push with its 10th victory in 12 games.

Liriano (7-10) gave up three hits with four walks and seven strikeouts in six innings as the Pirates remained tied for the National League wild-card lead with San Francisco - five games clear of third-place Milwaukee - and reside 2 1/2 behind St. Louis in the NL Central. McCutchen snapped a scoreless tie with his 24th homer of the season, and Russell Martin extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a single.

Aaron Harang (11-12) suffered another hard-luck loss for Atlanta, which fired general manager Frank Wren earlier in the day, lost for the ninth time in 10 games and fell to 4-15 in September. Harang gave up one run on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in seven innings, but the punchless Braves offense finished with only four hits - two by Freddie Freeman - in being shut out for the sixth time this month.

Liriano walked two hitters in the first, but got Chris Johnson to ground out with runners on first and third to end the threat. Harang struck out five in the first two innings and surrendered only three hits through five scoreless frames, but McCutchen hammered a 2-0 fastball deep into the left-field seats to open the sixth.

Pittsburgh, which also finished with four hits, turned the game over to the bullpen in the final three innings. Jared Hughes pitched a perfect seventh, John Holdzkom worked around a Freeman single in the eighth and Mark Melancon picked up his 32nd save despite booting Andrelton Simmons' chopper with two outs in the ninth, striking out B.J. Upton to end the game.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Pittsburgh 3B Josh Harrison went 1-for-4 and is batting .318, just behind Colorado’s Justin Morneau (.320) for the NL lead. … The Braves scored two runs or fewer for the 10th time in Harang’s past 13 starts. … Atlanta RF Jason Heyward (bruised left thumb) missed his fourth consecutive game.