Cubs’ magic number 1 thanks to Lester, Rizzo

ST. LOUIS — Jon Lester, with eight dominant innings on Wednesday, pitched the Cubs to within one win of their first division crown in eight years. A 7-0 victory that also featured a pair of home runs by Anthony Rizzo sealed a series win for the Cubs, who now head back to Wrigley Field with a chance to clinch the National League Central title in front of their home fans on Thursday.

“It’s been the Cardinals’ division for so many years now,” Rizzo said. “We’re going to really enjoy it when we do clinch tomorrow or whenever it happens. We’re not going to take it for granted.”

The Cardinals remained a half-game game behind the Mets and one game behind the Giants in the NL Wild Card standings with their 41st loss of the season at Busch Stadium. They’re now attempting to become the first club since the 2001 Braves to nab a postseason berth despite a losing home record.

“They pitched really well against us this series,” Cardinals outfielder Brandon Moss said. “[Kyle] Hendricks came out and threw a one-hitter [on Monday]. Then Lester came out and threw eight shutout innings. Tip your hat and move on. Not everybody is going to be that good every day. Just move on and go into a really big series [in San Francisco] and hopefully do better than we did this series.”

• Cubs boast ERA leaders after Lester’s gem

Lester hardly labored en route to joining teammate Jake Arrieta as co-league leaders with 17 wins. The Cards mustered three singles off the left-hander, who improved to 7-0 with a 1.02 ERA over his last nine starts. St. Louis became the seventh opponent this season to be held scoreless by Lester, who now tops all Major League pitchers with 24 quality starts. He finished Wednesday with eight strikeouts and never allowed a runner to advance into scoring position.

“Everybody talked about [clinching] coming into St. Louis, and we had a chance,” Lester said. “We have to focus on the baseball side when we show up to play. Obviously, it’s right there in front of us. We have to try to win [Thursday].”

It looked like Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez might match that dominance early, but the bottom part of the Cubs’ order gave him fits as the afternoon went along. It started with Lester’s second-inning single, which plated Javier Baez to give Chicago a 1-0 advantage. Oddly, three of Lester’s eight career hits have now come off Martinez.

The bottom four spots in the Cubs’ order went 5-for-12 against Martinez, who struck out nine, but allowed four runs over six innings. He entered the game having allowed seven runs in his past five starts combined.

“He came out of the gates really as good as we had seen him,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of Martinez, who struck out four of the first six batters he faced. “He had a really good rhythm, and I thought he had a really good feel for his pitches. Then [it was] just guys grinding at-bats on him, …

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