Jordan Montgomery pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning to remain unbeaten with St. Louis, Lars Nootbaar and Tommy Edman homered, and the Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 8-0 Friday night.

The NL Central-leading Cardinals have won five of six. Chicago has lost five of six.

Montgomery improved to 5-0 with a 1.47 ERA since being acquired from the New York Yankees in a trade on Aug. 2. He gave up two hits to lead off the seventh before reliever Jordan Hicks struck out pinch-hitter Zach McKinstry, Nick Madrigal and Seiya Suzuki.

Montgomery (8-3) scattered seven hits, striking out four and walking two.

Montgomery also extended his scoreless inning streak against the Cubs to 22 innings – he beat them 1-0 on Aug. 21 at Wrigley Field and also threw seven scoreless innings earlier this season as a member of the Yankees.

The Cardinals got late-inning homers from Nootbaar and Edman to break open what had been a close 3-0 game. Nootbaar’s 11th home run and Edman’s 12th came off Cubs reliever Sean Newcomb.

The Cubs had many opportunities, but went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Manager David Ross couldn’t put his finger on why his club has struggled so much against Montgomery.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first against Adrian Sampson (1-5). Tyler O’Neill hit a two-run single to score Brendan Donovan and Paul Goldschmidt, who had both walked.

Sampson (1-5) gave up two runs on four hits, striking out four and walking two in five innings.

UP NEXT

LHP Drew Smyly (5-7, 3.24 ERA) starts for Chicago and RHP Adam Wainwright (9-9, 3.09 ERA) throws for St. Louis in the second game of their three-games series Saturday. Smyly has a 1-1 career record against the Cardinals and Wainwright is 18-14 lifetime verses the Cubs.