ST. LOUIS — Kyle Hendricks was so good Monday night he even surprised himself.

The right-hander took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before giving up Jeremy Hazelbaker’s leadoff home run, and the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 to close in on the NL Central crown.

“I never thought I’d get that close to one,” Hendricks said. “A guy who throws to contact and doesn’t throw hard, you don’t think about it. You can run into one of those special days and you think, why not?

“My pregame bullpen was probably the worst I’ve had all year. Hopefully it clicks once the game starts, and it did.”

All the way until the ninth inning.

Hazelbaker drove an 0-2 pitch into the right-field stands for his 12th homer before Hendricks (15-7), the major league ERA leader at 2.03, was relieved by Aroldis Chapman.

“If you’re going to give it up, at least it’s that way and not a cheap hit,” Hendricks said. “I just left the ball up and he got it. It was just a changeup and I wanted to throw it in the dirt and get him to chase.”

Hazelbaker was looking for a changeup.

“I wasn’t surprised by it,” he said. “He’d been throwing that pitch all night. It was a good pitch he threw me. I was able to handle it like I wanted to.”

Ben Zobrist and Dexter Fowler homered for the Cubs, who lowered their magic number to three for clinching the division crown. They lead the second-place Cardinals by 17 games and can wrap up the NL Central with a three-game sweep in St. Louis.

The Cardinals remained a half-game behind the Mets for the league’s second wild card. New York lost 8-1 at Washington.

Hendricks, who threw 96 pitches, struck out seven and walked two.