CHICAGO _ A little more than three weeks remain to determine the National League Cy Young Award winner.
And Yu Darvish continues to strengthen his case.
Darvish threw 5 1/3 perfect innings Friday night before settling for seven innings of one-hit ball, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and extending their lead to 4 { games in the National League Central.
Darvish's only blemish was a solo home run to Matt Carpenter that landed in the basket in right-center at Wrigley Field.
That was the only baserunner against Darvish, who tied his season high with 11 strikeouts and finished his outing by striking out Paul Goldschmidt and Brad Miller on 96-mph fastballs.
It was a huge lift for the Cubs (23-15), who promoted Albert Alzolay from their South Bend, Ind., alternate site to pitch Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader and the bullpen asked to consume innings in the second game while in the midst of a stretch in which they will play 14 games in 13 days.
Darvish's performance overshadowed a four-RBI performance from Willson Contreras, who capped his three-hit game by hitting a home run in the sixth off reliever Jake Woodford.
Darvish (7-1) set a career high by winning his seventh consecutive start, equaling the longest winning streak by a Cubs starter since Jon Lester from May 29-July 1, 2018. Darvish's ERA dipped to a league-leading 1.44, and he has struck out 63 while walking only eight in 50 innings.
During his seven-game winning streak, Darvish has an 0.98 ERA. And since the second half of 2019, Darvish has a 2.19 ERA with 15 walks and 181 strikeouts in 21 starts.
This marked the second time this season Darvish had a no-hitter through at least five innings, only to see it end on a home run. He held the Brewers hitless through 6 1/3 innings Aug. 13 before Justin Smoak hit a home run.
This time, with remote-control sharpness to all quadrants of the strike zone, Darvish didn't need much defensive help from his teammates.
Shortstop Javier Baez was positioned perfectly behind second base to catch a Dylan Carlson line drive to end the third. Kyle Schwarber ran far to catch a Kolten Wong high fly near the left-field foul line for the first out in the fourth. And Anthony Rizzo reached high to catch third baseman Kris Bryant's throw to retire Paul Goldschmidt for the final out of the fourth.
Carpenter has only five extra-base hits this season, but two have resulted in home runs at Wrigley.
Without leadoff batter Ian Happ, who was held out because of a bruise near his right eye, the Cubs offense quickly wore down nemesis Jack Flaherty with their patience. Flaherty lasted only 2 2/3 innings, with much of the damage administered during a 43-pitch first inning.
Contreras fouled off four consecutive pitches after a 3-1 count before ripping a two-run single to center field. Two innings later, Contreras came through with a two-out RBI single to knock out Flaherty.
Contreras is 9 for 16 (.563) in his last four games.
Since Flaherty's major league debut on Sept. 1, 2017, no opposing pitcher had struck out more Cubs (62 in 51 2/3 innings) entering Friday's game.
And the Cubs were batting .156 against Flaherty, the lowest of any major league pitcher to make at least 10 starts against them.
