Sanchez's deep fly ball to center field scored Jordy Mercer after Justin Upton's error in left-center field one batter earlier gave the Pirates runners at second and third with one out. The unearned run was charged to David Carpenter (4-3), who gave up one hit in two-thirds of an inning, and made a winner of Mark Melancon (2-3), who pitched a perfect ninth.

Travis Snider recorded two of the five hits for the Pirates, who remained 2 1/2 games behind San Francisco for the second National League wild card but climbed within six of first-place Milwaukee in the NL Central. Jason Heyward scored both runs for the Braves, who had their five-game winning streak snapped and dropped 1 1/2 games back of the Giants and 6 1/2 behind first-place Washington in the NL East.

Upton's RBI single in the first inning put the Braves up 1-0 and Chris Johnson added an RBI single in the sixth to double the lead. Pittsburgh rallied in the eighth, chasing Atlanta starter Alex Wood and pushing across runs on Chris Stewart's groundout and a wild pitch by Jordan Walden.

Wood took a shutout into the eighth and finished having allowed two runs and four hits over seven-plus frames in a duel with Pittsburgh's Gerrit Cole, who gave up two runs and five hits over seven innings. Mercer led off the ninth with a single and wound up at third with one out after Upton misplayed a fly ball as he and brother B.J. nearly collided in left-center, then scored easily on Sanchez's drive to deep center.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Cole retired 12 straight batters before Heyward led off the sixth with a double and eventually scored on Johnson's base hit. … Snider extended his hitting streak to 11 games and is 18-for-41 during the stretch. … The Pirates were 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position, with their only plate appearances in those situations coming on Stewart's run-scoring grounder in the eighth and Sanchez's sacrifice fly in the ninth.