MLB: Pittsburgh 7, St. Louis 1

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Gerrit Cole had a strong start and Pittsburgh scored in five innings Friday for a 7-1 win that evened the NL Division Series with St. Louis at a game each.

The win by the Pirates offset the Cardinals' 9-1 thumping in Thursday's first game of the best-of-five series and assures there will be two games in Pittsburgh. Game 3 is scheduled for Sunday afternoon with the fourth game Monday.

Cole (1-0) gave up two hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out five. One of the hits he allowed was a fifth-inning home run by Yadier Molina but the Pirates were ahead 5-0 before that.

Pittsburgh limited St. Louis, which had 10 hits Thursday, to four hits overall with the Pirates' bullpen backing Cole with three innings of two-hit, one-walk relief.

Pittsburgh reached Cardinals starter Lance Lynn (0-1) for five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Cole drove in the first run of the game with a two-out single in the second and the Pirates went up 3-0 the next inning when Pedro Alvarez connected for a two-run home run.

Justin Morneau and Marlon Byrd had back-to-back doubles and Byrd scored on Russell Martin's single to make the score 5-0 in the fifth.

Martin added a seventh-inning sacrifice fly and Starling Marte hit a home run in the eighth to complete the scoring.