CHICAGO — The St. Louis Cardinals set a franchise record with their 15th straight win, boosted when catcher Yadier Molina and center fielder Harrison Bader helped pull off a wild double play Saturday in an 8-5 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Bader, Tyler O’Neill and Paul DeJong homered as these Cardinals broke the team record of 14 wins in a row set in 1935, a year after Dizzy Dean and the Gas House Gang won the World Series.

Bader went 4 for 4 and scored three times as the Cardinals held their comfortable lead for the second NL wild-card spot — they began the day five games ahead of Philadelphia and six in front of Cincinnati.

And in a charmed final month, St. Louis preserved a late lead with a crazy play that resulted in a pair of rundowns and two outs.

After Nolan Arenado doubled to spark a three-run rally in the seventh, the Cardinals took a 5-4 lead into the eighth at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs quickly threatened when David Bote led off with a triple and Trayce Thompson walked. One out later, with runners still at the corners, Rafael Ortega hit a grounder to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who threw home to Molina.

After a short rundown, Arenado tagged out Bote. The star third baseman then cut across the diamond to trap Ortega off first. Another rundown ensued, with Molina catching a throw between second and third base before tossing to Bader, who had alertly rushed in join the play and led to Thompson being tagged, too.

The official scoring read like a phone number – 3-2-5-4-2-8-6 – it was the fourth double play of the afternoon for the dialed-in Cards, and kept them ahead by a run.

PHILLIES 3, PIRATES 0: Ranger Suarez pitched a four-hit shutout, Bryce Harper homered and Philadelphia kept up its playoff push, beating Pittsburgh for its fifth straight win, in Philadelphia.

The Phillies began the day 1 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the NL East. Philadelphia visits the Braves in a three-game series beginning Tuesday.

Suarez (7-5) allowed just four singles, walked none and struck out seven in his first major league complete game. He didn’t permit a runner past first base and faced only one batter more than the minimum, keeping the Pirates off-balance and generating a lot of weak contact.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BLUE JAYS 6, TWINS 1: Teoscar Hernández, Marcus Semien and George Springer homered, and Toronto won at Minneapolis.

Robbie Ray (13-6) scattered three hits in six innings as the Blue Jays ended a three-game slide.

Toronto is two games behind Boston and New York in the AL wild-card race with seven games remaining.

ATHLETICS 2, ASTROS 1: Starling Marte hit a game-ending double with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting Oakland past visiting Houston.

The A’s are four games behind the Red Sox and Yankees for the two AL wild cards.

Houston’s magic number to clinch the AL West remained at three over Seattle.

Elvis Andrus singled off Ryan Pressly (5-3) to begin the Oakland ninth. After Josh Harrison struck out swinging, Marte lined an 0-1 pitch into the gap in right-center. Andrus scored without a throw when center fielder Jose Siri’s throw back to the infield was low.

Andrus sustained an undisclosed injury on the play and was helped off the field.

Andrew Chafin (2-3) retired three batters to win.

TIGERS 5, ROYALS 1: Miguel Cabrera drove in four runs, including a go-ahead, two-run double in the sixth inning, and Detroit won at home.

Jeimer Candelario supplied a run-scoring double for the Tigers, who have won five of six. Jonathan Schoop had two hits and scored two runs.

Winning pitcher Drew Hutchison (3-1) allowed only an unearned run in 2 2/3 innings of relief. Michael Fulmer got four outs for his 12th save.

INTERLEAGUE

RAYS 7, MARLINS 3: Tampa Bay clinched its second straight AL East title, with Mike Zunino hitting a go-ahead homer and Brandon Lowe later adding a pair of RBI doubles to beat Miami in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Reliever Pete Fairbanks retired Lewis Brinson on a foul popup with the bases loaded for the final out, giving the Rays the chance to celebrate on the field. Earlier in the day, Tampa Bay’s magic number was cut to one when the New York Yankees beat Boston 5-3.

There was a standing ovation from the season-high announced crowd of 23,783 at Tropicana Field when the Yankees’ victory was announced after the top of the sixth inning.

Tampa Bay improved to 96-59 and won its fourth division title since becoming a major league team for the 1998 season. The club debuted as the Devil Rays then, and wore jerseys with that name during this clinching victory.

The Rays, who lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games last season, have never won the championship.

NOTES

ANGELS: Los Angeles star Mike Trout is officially shut down for the season.

The three-time AL MVP suffered a calf strain on May 17 and hasn’t returned to the lineup since. The original prognosis was six to eight weeks of rehabilitation, but the injury was worse than originally thought.

Trout was trying to get back this season, but recently made the decision that he was done this year.

The 30-year-old outfielder said he’s healthy and should have a normal offseason in New Jersey.

“It’s been tough for me, but now looking back and learning from everything, this was the biggest injury of my career,” Trout said.

“It came down to we were trying everything the last month and a half to get back out there. My calf and my body weren’t cooperating. It was frustrating. I took a week, 2 1/2 weeks off and I feel almost 100%.”

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