Lester dominates as division magic number hits 1

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 over the Cardinals that also featured a pair of home runs by Anthony Rizzo sealed a series win and at least a Wild Card berth for the Cubs, who headed 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 attempting to become the first club since the 2001 Braves to nab a postseason berth despite a losing home record.

The Cubs, meanwhile, are assured of postseason play. They can finish with no worse than the same record as St. Louis, and the Cardinals have four games remaining against the Giants. Since the Cards would have to win all of their games to tie Chicago, that would mean four losses for the Giants, who lead the Wild Card race by a half-game over the Mets. New York also can do no better than finish with the same record as the Cubs. In other words, in the highly unlikely event that the Cubs lose all of their remaining games and the Cardinals and Mets win all of theirs, there would be a tie atop the NL Central and the loser of the tiebreaking game would be one of the Wild Cards.

Chicago can clinch the NL Central outright on Thursday with a win over Milwaukee, or if San Francisco beats St. Louis.

“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 …

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