Cardinals drive another nail into Cubs’ coffin with 2-1 victory at Wrigley Field

A starting pitcher who could belly up to any bar in Wrigleyville and go unnoticed. A Class AA shortstop who looks like he’s playing hooky from high school. A star first baseman brave as a bull but wobblier than a newborn fawn. A magician reduced to pinch-runner status. A bullpen, shorthanded as usual.

What could go wrong?

A Cubs team that’s about a million miles from its best self played a game it had to win Friday at Wrigley Field. It didn’t go so well.

Cardinals 2, Cubs 1.

Put another one in the books for the hottest team in baseball. The Cardinals have a league-best 29-12 record over the last six weeks. Speaking of six, that was their magic number in the NL Central when this one ended. It might as well have been zero.

And put another nail in the Cubs’ coffin. With eight games to go, they trail the Cardinals by five games in the division and the Nationals and Brewers by 2½ and 1½ games, respectively, in the wild-card race. There’s still time — no doubt about that — but things certainly are trending in the wrong direction.

The Cubs have lost four straight, including the first two games of this four-game series. They’re also 19-20 over that same six-week stretch during which the Cardinals have stormed into World Series contention. The Brewers, entering Friday’s home game against the last-place Pirates, were 23-14.

“Obviously, we are running out of time,” manager Joe Maddon said. “To catch [the Cardinals] is becoming more difficult. But there’s still a solid opportunity to be a playoff team.”

Solid, flimsy, disappearing — pick your word.

After teeing off for 55 runs in the first four games of this homestand, the Cubs have been held to nine runs over the next four. The opposing pitching undeniably has been better, but that reality doesn’t mitigate the eerie sensation that we’ve seen this kind of late-September disappearing act at the plate before.

Alec Mills, starting in place of Cole Hamels, who was scratched due to shoulder fatigue, gave the Cubs 4 2/3 scoreless innings, an outstanding effort that met manager Maddon’s highest hopes. No fewer than eight relievers followed Mills, with David Phelps, who walked the only two batters he faced to begin the sixth inning, responsible for both Cardinals runs.

They scored on Yadier Molina’s base hit off Steve Cishek, an old rival sticking it to the Cubs and undoubtedly loving it.

Leadoff man Anthony Rizzo, owner of the world’s most famous ankle, singled and walked but left the game after five innings — injury management, as planned — and was replaced at first base by Ian Happ, who later was replaced by Victor Caratini.

The Cubs will rue a couple of missed opportunities. With runners on first and third in the second inning, young shortstop Nico Hoerner grounded into an inning-ending double play. With the bases loaded in the third, Kyle Schwarber did the same.

And a play symbolic of the season happened in the seventh when, with the bases loaded, Bryant hit a ball that titillated the crowd before dying on the warning track in left. He barely missed it — just not quite good enough.

“It’s weird,” Rizzo said. “These are tough games. It’s one at a time. It doesn’t matter what we did four days ago or what we did yesterday. Just flush today as fast as we can, come out tomorrow and play.”