The Cubs have been on a hot streak and their pitching has been the driving force.

Kyle Hendricks continued that Friday night in St. Louis.

The veteran turned in a dominant — and vintage — outing against the Cardinals, shutting them out over 7 innings and allowing just 5 hits and a walk with 3 strikeouts in the Cubs’ 5-1 win over St. Louis. It’s the Cubs 5th straight win and their 7th win in their last 8.

They’re 3 games under .500 and sit 3 games back in the NL Wild Card race. Their 5-game winning streak is the longest in the majors.

The Cubs have used their rotation to spark their hot run. In those 8 games, the Cubs lead the majors with a 1.45 ERA and 0.72 WHIP from starting pitchers. The Cubs kept the Cardinals off the scoreboard through 8 innings, shutting out their opponents over 32 innings, their longest streak since 1971.

Overall this season, the Cubs ranked 6th in ERA from starters (3.58) and 4th in WHIP (1.17).

In those first 8 innings, the Cardinals did not have a runner reach scoring position — Willson Contreras was nabbed at second trying to stretch a single into a double.

It was an outing that Cubs fans have become used to over Hendricks’ tenure in Chicago. The Cardinals averaged just 83.5 mph on their exit velocity against Hendricks.

The performance came 6 days after he exited his last outing after 2 innings against the Angels with back discomfort. Hendricks and manager Craig Counsell showed no worries that the veteran would make his next start and boy are they glad he did. His ability to pitch deep into the game was huge as the Cubs face the Cardinals in a doubleheader on Saturday.

But the Cubs did have to use 4 relievers to pick up the final 6 outs of the game. Luke Little exited 4 pitches with “left shoulder discomfort”, Counsell said and was replaced by Mark Leiter Jr. in the 8th. Hunter Bigge walked 2 batters and allowed a single in 0.1 innings in the 9th, forcing Counsell to turn to closer Héctor Neris to record the final two outs.

The Cubs will turn to Hayden Wesneski in Game 1 and Javier Assad in Game 2. Assad is currently on the 15-day IL but will be activated ahead of the contest.