ST. LOUIS _ The Cubs ended one significant hex while reversing a negative trend Wednesday night to move into a tie for first place in the National League Central.
Thanks to Kyle Hendricks' masterful pitching, the Cubs held on for a 2-0 victory over the Cardinals for their first win in five games at Busch Stadium this season.
With one out in the ninth, closer Craig Kimbrel allowed two hits but induced Matt Wieters to ground to third and struck out Yairo Munoz to end the game.
The Cubs (57-50), who have led in all 17 games since the All-Star break, improved to 17-19 on the road in sharing the division lead with the Cardinals.
Hendricks (8-8) stranded runners in scoring position in five of the seven innings he worked, striking out seven and not issuing a walk.
In three starts against the Cardinals, Hendricks has a 0.39 ERA with 19 hits allowed, no walks and 13 strikeouts in 23 innings.
Hendricks was aided by a change-up that tickled the lower quadrants of the strike zone. Hendricks struck out the side in the first but was surprised he didn't get a third strike call on a 1-2 pitch to Paul Goldschmidt to open the second.
But Hendricks rebounded by retiring the next three batters, capped by a called third strike on Tyler O'Neill on a 79-mph change-up.
Goldschmidt opened the fourth with another double but was aided by Kris Bryant's catch as he reached into the stands to catch a foul pop by Kolten Wong.
After allowing a hit to O'Neill, Hendricks struck out Wieters on a 78-mph pitch to end the inning.
Ian Happ provided run support with a single with two out in the sixth to score Bryant, who reached first on an error by third baseman Tommy Edman.
In manager Joe Maddon's latest search for an offensive spark at the top of the order, Jason Heyward batted leadoff for only the seventh time this season. Heyward replaced Robel Garcia, who was 1 for 15 in that slot.
Heyward, who had a three-hit game in Tuesday's 2-1 loss, hit a single with two out in third and advanced to third on a single by Willson Contreras.
But with Bryant coming up, Contreras tried to stretch his single into a double by was thrown out by right fielder Jose Martinez for the final out.
Heyward started another two-out rally in the seventh with a double, but Contreras hit a feeble grounder to first.
A strange set of circumstances enabled the Cubs to add an insurance run in the eighth. With two out, Javier Baez hit a high fly ball down the left-field line that eluded Munoz but was ruled foul. Maddon asked for a crew chief review, and replays showed Baez's ball hit the chalk for a double.
With Happ at the plate, Baez wandered too far off second, and he broke for third after Wieters threw to second, and the throw skipped into center field for an error to score Baez.
