Powered by four home runs, the Chicago Cubs crushed the visiting St. Louis Cardinals 12-1 on Friday and moved closer to securing home-field advantage in next week's National League wild-card series.

Colin Rea (11-7) allowed just two hits and a walk over 5 2/3 scoreless innings. The right-hander also struck out seven in earning his first win since Aug. 20.

The Cubs (90-70) took full advantage of the wind blowing out to center field, with Nico Hoerner, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Michael Busch and Seiya Suzuki all going deep. Three of those blasts came off Miles Mikolas (8-11), who gave up six homers in a July 4 loss, also in Chicago.

Hoerner hit his seventh homer of the season with one out in the first. Crow-Armstrong followed in the fourth with a two-run shot. With his 30th homer of the season

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