CHICAGO -- Coming into Thursday, there had been 142 MLB pitchers to make at least 10 starts this season, only two of whom had failed to garner a victory. One of them was Cardinals lefty Steven Matz, who hadn’t recorded a win as a starter in nearly a year.

That finally changed on Thursday, as Matz allowed just one run over five innings to nab his first victory as a starter since July 23, 2022. Matz got the Cardinals off to a good start and their bats did the rest in a 7-2 win over the Cubs that was St. Louis’ season-best sixth victory in a row and eighth in the past nine games.

“It definitely does [weigh on him mentally], especially when my pitch count started to get high there in the fifth inning, so I was happy to get out of that,” Matz said of doing enough to qualify for the win. “For me, it’s more about the quality innings. Getting through that fifth inning and getting a good team win, this can give me some momentum going forward.”

Matz was expected to be a key piece of the rotation for the Cardinals, who awarded him a four-year, $44 million contract prior to the 2022 season. That certainly didn’t happen in his first year in St. Louis, which was marred by shoulder and knee injuries. In ‘23, Matz’s early-season struggles mirrored the Cardinals’ overall, as he posted a 5.72 ERA in 10 starts before being moved to the bullpen.

Given another shot at starting after eight mostly solid relief outings, Matz has looked like a different pitcher while mixing his heavy sinker and a much more effective changeup -- a mix which worked extremely well on Thursday, as he struck out six and walked just one.

Undoubtedly, with their most complete two weeks of baseball, the Cardinals have sent a message to their NL Central rivals that they are far from out of it. They used the season-best winning spree to escape a 51-day stretch in last place earlier in the week by catching and passing the Pirates. With Thursday’s win, they pulled to within 1 1/2 games of the Cubs, with seven more meetings between the two teams over the next 10 days.

“It’s fun seeing our guys run the bases and our offense continuing doing what they’re doing because we faced a good arm today,” said manager Oliver Marmol, whose Cardinals defeated Marcus Stroman for a third time. “Our starting pitching is doing a really good job and our ‘pen has been more consistent. It’s been fun to watch.”

A critical point came in the fifth inning when four Cardinals defenders lost a popup off the bat of Seiya Suzuki in the twilight and he came around to score as rookie Jordan Walker misplayed a ball into a triple. Often rattled by quirky hits in the past, Matz walked Christopher Morel before getting a visit from pitching coach Dusty Blake. Matz then got Patrick Wisdom to pop out to end the fifth inning.

“[Blake] just wanted to give me a little breather, because sometimes the game can speed up on you with the pitch clock, so that was just about what pitch I wanted to throw and executing,” Matz said. “It’s just about making good pitches and executing. Having that breather right there allowed me to gather myself and I was able to make some good pitches to Wisdom.”

Signed to bring some left-handed balance to a rotation that has been righty-heavy for years, Matz got off to a 3-1 start in 2022 before falling on hard times and missing nearly two months with shoulder trouble. In his first start back on July 23, 2022, Matz pitched well enough to beat the Reds, but he buckled his knee and missed another extended period with a torn meniscus.

This year, since returning to the starting staff on July 9, Matz has pitched much more effectively -- largely because of the improvement with his changeup. His willingness to pitch inside and keep hitters off-balance with that pitch paved the way for his first victory in quite some time.

“I think [the changeup] has been huge and another big thing has been keeping them off my fastball and speeding them up with that,” said Matz, who had six swings and misses with that pitch on Thursday. “My fastball was playing good, and it just made that [changeup] even better today.”