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ST. LOUIS — Whether it was the detour his summer took into the bullpen or the seven earned runs he’s allowed in three of his six previous road starts, there has been little familiar about this season for Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks except the opponent that helps him find a footing.

He can count on the Cardinals.

The Cardinals’ longtime nemesis — the Riddler to their bat-men — confounded them again for seven shutout innings and led the Cubs to a 5-1 victory Friday night at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals positioned their starting pitchers to greet the archrival Cubs with their best for the last series of the first half, right down to Game 1 going to their No. 1, Sonny Gray. The Cubs, hardly healthy enough to be choosy, went with who they had available, and Hendricks was more than enough. Even in one of his worst seasons, he’s still among the best against the Cardinals.

Fresh off a sweep of Baltimore at Camden Yards, the Cubs extended their winning streak to five games. The offense, long a drag on any consistency the Cubs mustered this season, has started to perk up, whether it’s two hits from shortstop Dansby Swanson or timely hits from the bottom of the Cubs’ order. Miles Mastrobouni singled and scored twice as the Cubs took a three-run lead, and a pinch-hitter for him, David Bote, delivered a two-run double in the eighth to build a 5-0 lead.

Not that Hendricks needed that much help.

On his way to a 14th win in 27 starts vs. the Cardinals, Hendricks confounded them for seven shutout innings and his finest start of a season that has been far from his finest.

In two appearances against the Cardinals, Hendricks has yet to allow a run in 11 1/3 innings. Against every other team he’s faced this year in the majors, he’s allowed 53 runs and 13 home runs in 59 innings for bloated ERA of 8.08. If the Cardinals saw any of those tasty morsels he’s offered other teams, they missed them amidst the down-shift change-up and pinpoint fastball that teased them into awkward swings.

Hendricks, 2-7 this season but 14-4 vs. the Cardinals in his career, slashed nearly a run off his ERA. He was in such control of the game that he never threw a pitch with a runner as far as second base.

Although twice the Cardinals did try for second and were thrown out there.

Hendricks walked one batter who was dutifully erased on the double play, and he struck out three. It took him 90 pitches to get 21 outs, and some of his swiftest shutdown innings came after the Cubs took a lead.

Sonny Gray surpassed 100 pitches for the first time this season. The Cubs reached him for nine hits through seven innings, though the right-hander avoided any combustible innings. Two of the three runs the Cubs scored against Gray came on outs — a groundout for the game’s first run and a sacrifice fly for Gray’s last run allowed. Gray (9-6) struck out six, did not walk a batter, but could not match the zeroes of Hendricks.

The Cardinals mustered three walks and a single in the ninth inning to avoid a shutout and bring the tying run to the plate. Lars Nootbaar struck out on a called strike three from Hector Neris to leave Cardinals 0-3 on this homestand with three to play.

Hendricks maintains hex over Cardinals

When last the Cardinals saw Hendricks, the right-hander was emerging from the Wrigley Field ivy/bullpen to rescue an injured starter.

It was his first time facing the Cardinals that wasn’t a start.

And yet it looked like so many of his starts in the rivalry.

A right-hander who once flirted with the first no-hitter by a visitor to the City of St. Louis since before the Browns left town, Hendricks pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief on June 14 against the Cardinals. That was his most recent scoreless appearance. He allowed at least a run all four starts since. He sure appeared to be securing that second scoreless outing in a while through seven innings Friday night. Despite entering the game with a 7.53 ERA and one win in 16 appearances, Hendricks pitched like the Cardinals have come to expect.

“He’s been good against us. That’s my answer,” manager Oliver Marmol said before the game. “He’s a guy who you can change your approach on and he sniffs it out quicker than most. As far as if you want to be aggressive on him early he goes to the edges and gets you to make soft contact. If you’re not aggressive early, he’ll steal strike 1. He has different ways of stealing strike 1 because he commands his stuff pretty well. I understand he hasn’t had the most successful year, but he threw well against us, and our hope is to change that.”

Exiting the seventh inning, they had not.

The Cardinals had some of their most off-balance swings of the season chasing after Hendricks’ off-speed pitches. In the first inning, his dropped a curveball that Alec Burleson, who has a great knack for contact, took for a called third strike. In his at-bat in the third and fifth innings, Nolan Gorman winced with a couple of swings because of Hendricks’ 81-mph change-up. It appeared to have Bugs Bunny action. Through five shutout innings, Hendricks didn’t throw a pitch swifter than 89.7 mph, averaged 84.2 mph on all his pitches, and still vexed the Cardinals with his movement and placement.

He had 15 called strikes in his first 66 pitches.

The Cubs turned to Hendricks for the series-opening start despite being out of the rotation not too long ago and dealing with a sore back in his most recent appearance. The reason — beyond, of course his hold on the Cardinals — was innings. The Cubs needed them.

“Kyle has got to do what he’s good at,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We talk about — the word elite is thrown around for a lot of guys, and Kyle has got a special gift to be elite with where he places the baseball, and that’s what it takes for him to be successful. There is a difference between being good at it or being great at it, and sometimes that’s the difference between success and failure.”

Facing some Cardinals for a third time, Hendricks still had them flummoxed and pitched a scoreless sixth inning on nine pitches.

Small ball for small bears proves big

The bottom third of the Cubs’ lineup produced the first run of the game, and it took three balls that did not leave the infield against Gray to do it.

Mastrobuoni opened the inning with a single to center field.

Speedy Pete Crow-Armstrong dropped a bunt to move Mastrobuoni into scoring position, but Crow-Armstrong was able to outrun the play at first for a single. That shifted the sacrifice attempt No. 9 hitter, Miguel Amaya, and he nudged both teammates into scoring position. When the inning wrapped around to the top of the order, Mastrobuoni scored on a groundout for the 1-0 lead. The Cubs increased their lead to 3-0 with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning off Gray.

In between those situational rallies, the Cubs got something as traditional as a Hendricks’ quality start against them: An Ian Happ hit.

Happ doubled in the fourth inning against Gray.

He scored when Swanson, who has struggled this season to a .209 average, delivered a full-count, two-out single to left. Swanson swatted the seventh pitch of his at-bat and connected on a 93.9-mph sinker.

Hendricks again, briefly

Following each of the innings when the Cubs scored a run, Hendricks nullified the Cardinals, and did so swiftly. After Mastrobuoni’s run in the top of the third inning, Hendricks retired the Cardinals in order on 10 pitches in the bottom of the third. Happ’s double became a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning, and Hendricks got three outs on nine pitches in the bottom of the fourth inning. He was helped by a strikeout-caught steal double play with Paul Goldschmidt at the plate that ended the inning.

When the Cubs widened that lead to 3-0 in the top of the seventh, Hendricks allowed a two-out single in the bottom of the inning that momentarily added a few pitches.

He handled a groundout from Nolan Arenado to assure it added no drama.

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