CHICAGO — Cody Bellinger drove in the tiebreaking run with a ricochet infield single in the eighth inning and the Chicago Cubs beat Milwaukee 3-2 on Wednesday to pull within three games of the first-place Brewers in the NL Central.

Bellinger’s sharply hit ball up the middle glanced off the right ankle of reliever Joel Payamps and to third baseman Andruw Monasterio. Bellinger beat out Monasterio’s throw, allowing Mike Tauchman to score from third. It was Chicago’s third and final hit of the game.

“I saw it kind of bounce toward third base and I just tried to beat the throw,” said Bellinger. “I didn’t know if there would be a play or not, so I just kind of put my head down and ran as fast I could.”

After dropping the first game of the series Monday, the Cubs came back to take the next two with solid pitching and defense. At 71-62, Chicago is a season-high nine games above .500.

Bellinger, with 18 RBIs in his last 12 games and a major league-leading 54 since July, has helped lead Chicago’s climb back into the playoff picture.

The Cubs are squarely in the wild card mix. As for the NL Central title?

“Obviously we believe the division is reachable,” Bellinger said. “We got a whole month left though and some really good teams, so we’ve just got to continue playing our game.”

Chicago had ended Milwaukee’s nine-game winning streak Tuesday with a 1-0 win behind six solid innings from All-Star left-hander Justin Steele, followed by three innings of one-hit relief.

“We pitched, made plays when we had to and got a couple of key hits,” manager David Ross said.

Adbert Alzolay (2-4) got the final four outs for the win, despite hitting Mark Canha with bases loaded in the eighth to force in the tying run. Payamps (4-4) took the loss.

Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks pitched six crisp innings, allowing only an unearned run on four hits while striking out six and walking two.

Cardinals 5, Padres 4

ST. LOUIS — Tommy Edman has something in common with Albert Pujols.

Edman hit a two-run homer off Josh Hader in the ninth for his second walk-off hit in two days off the All-Star closer, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat San Diego 5-4 on Wednesday.

“He’s just got such a good fastball,” Edman said. “Just trying to stay as short as I possibly could and got to try to stay on top of it, just because that fastball is pretty explosive. So, it’s trying to not do too much and it’s fun when you accidentally hit a homer.”

Edman became the first Cardinals player with consecutive walk-off RBIs since Pujols against the Chicago Cubs on June 4-5, 2011.

“The best part is just seeing your teammates surrounding home as you’re rounding third base,” Edman said. “And just the feeling of being able to come through for your guys. We fought all day.”

St. Louis trailed 4-3 before Masyn Winn doubled off Hader (0-3) with two outs in the ninth and Edman sliced a sinker to the opposite field and into the Cardinals bullpen behind the right-field wall. Edman’s 10th-inning single on Tuesday night gave St. Louis a 6-5 win.

Rookie Jordan Walker had his first big league four-hit game, including his 12th homer, a tying, three-run drive in the fourth against Rich Hill. At 21 years and 100 days old, Walker became the youngest Cardinals player with a four-hit game since Ken Reitz at 21 years, 76 days against the New York Mets on Sept. 8, 1972.

White Sox 10, Orioles 5

BALTIMORE — Coming off two consecutive lopsided victories over the sagging Chicago White Sox, the Baltimore Orioles appeared headed for another blowout after bolting to a four-run lead in the first inning of the series finale.

Unfortunately for the AL East-leading Orioles, it wasn’t enough of a cushion for 13-game winner Kyle Gibson.

Chicago hit three home runs off Gibson to rally from that early deficit and pulled out a 10-5 win Wednesday to avoid a three-game sweep.

Anthony Santander homered for the Orioles, who hit two doubles and a pair of singles in the first inning off Dylan Cease before fading to their third loss in 12 games.

“The offense did a great job of getting runs early,” Gibson said. “Then, giving them back there by not being able to make a pitch and get out of it, that’s pretty frustrating.”

Luis Robert Jr. hit his 35th home run in the third inning to put Chicago ahead for good. Andrew Vaughn and Óscar Colás also went deep for the White Sox, who were outscored 18-3 in the first two games of the series.

“It’s always good to win. I’m very happy to get this one after the first two games here,” Robert said through an interpreter.

The White Sox have struggled to score this season and were 5-12 in 17 games before this one, but on this day just about everything went right.“This shows just how good our offense is,” Robert said. “I been telling you guys this since the start of the season, that we’re a good offensive team. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that enough consistently.”

Gibson (13-8) allowed seven runs and nine hits over 4 1/3 innings. The right-hander gave up only 16 home runs in his first 27 starts, but in this one he allowed three homers to the first 11 batters he faced.

It was a weird August for Gibson, who beat the Mets, Oakland and Toronto but was shelled by Seattle and the White Sox.

“Had a bunch of quality starts, pitched really well for us,” manager Brandon Hyde said, “and had a few which really didn’t go his way early.”

Cease (6-7) overcame a 30-pitch first inning to earn only his second victory in eight starts since July 16. He allowed five runs and six hits in six innings, walking three and striking out seven.

Cease threw 109 pitches, the 10th time this season he’s reached triple digits.

Santander hit an RBI double and scored on a single by Ryan O’Hearn as part of a big first inning that made it appear as if the Orioles were ready to cruise behind Gibson, who was perfect in the top half.