The Pirates' offense made Chicago's Rich Harden look dominant, as they went down quietly to the Cubs, 3-1, tonight before 15,400 at PNC Park.

Duke was not at his sharpest, allowing more solid contact than usual on his sinker, but he still limited Chicago to three runs and seven hits over his seven innings.

The Cubs scored on Andres Blanco's RBI single in the second, Ryan Theriot's solo home run off a 1-0 fastball in the third and Milton Bradley's RBI double in the fourth.

The latter was a laser to the fence in center, even though Bradley had to reach down for a finely located slider.

Harden, owner of a 4.95 ERA, performed as most starters with ERAs in that range do to the Pirates: He held them to one run and nine hits over seven innings, striking out nine and walking one.

The Pirates appeared to be getting to him late, but they mustered just one run in the fifth through seventh innings despite eight hits in that span. The lone run came when Andy LaRoche led off the fifth with a double and eventually scored on Jack Wilson's groundout.

Sanchez left bases loaded that inning with a comebacker, and he quashed another rally in the seventh by bouncing in a 6-4-3 double play with two aboard.

Adam LaRoche, the cleanup man behind Sanchez, fared no better with three strikeouts and a groundout.

The Pirates finished with nine hits.

The Cubs had been carrying all kinds of discontent on this road trip before arriving in Pittsburgh, from a 1-6 record to an overall record two games below .500 to the lowlight of Bradley being kicked out of a game by manager Lou Piniella last week for a dugout-damaging tirade.