ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals had an opportunity to take advantage of the Brewers’ loss to the Rockies on Friday night, widen their division lead and make the final two games of the regular season a little less magnified.

Instead, they ended the night in the same situation that they started it.

A seven-run top of the seventh in which three different Cardinals relievers attempted to curb the Cubs was enough to hand St. Louis an 8-2 loss on Friday night at Busch Stadium.

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But because of the Brewers’ loss, St. Louis still holds a one-game lead in the National League Central. The Cardinals started the day with the possibility of clinching Saturday, and that still can happen -- it would just take a St. Louis win and a Brewers loss.

The only thing that changed after both teams lost Friday was that the Cardinals’ magic number -- the combination of wins by the Cardinals and losses by the Brewers needed to decide the NL Central -- dropped to two with two games to play.

“We want to take care of our own business, but [the Brewers’ loss] makes it a little softer,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said.

The Cardinals’ bullpen allowed all eight of the Cubs’ runs after Matt Carpenter gave St. Louis the lead in the fourth with his 14th homer of the year, one that came just five pitches after Albert Almora Jr. robbed Yadier Molina of a home run in center field.

But Giovanny Gallegos’ first pitch in the sixth inning was a slider down the middle for Ian Happ to belt over the right-field fence and tie the game. Starter Dakota Hudson had struck out a career-high 10 batters, but five walks -- including three straight in the third inning -- ballooned his pitch count to 97 over five scoreless innings.

“Just small misses,” Hudson said. “Trying to get a ground ball and using my ground-ball pitch. Had a couple of lefties come up and they’re seeing the ball a little different than a righty, so they just kind of took and were a little passive and made me come to them. In a situation where I didn’t want to give in, and I guess it was worth the extra few pitches to put up a zero.”

But Shildt lined up the bullpen the way he wanted to with a one-run lead, confident that the Cardinals’ consistent strength this year would continue into Friday night.

Gallegos, who has burst onto the scene this year as the reliable setup man, was going to take the sixth and some of the seventh inning. Andrew Miller, who was acquired this offseason to be the experienced left-hander in the bullpen who enters in pivotal spots and comes up big, was going to face the Cubs’ lefties in the seventh and part of the eighth, and closer Carlos Martínez was set to finish the eighth and the ninth.

“We just never got there,” Shildt said.

After Gallegos got through the sixth, Miller walked the leadoff batter, allowed two hits, threw a wild pitch and hit a batter.

The Cardinals have used Ryan Helsley in high-leverage situations lately to prepare the right-hander for a potential postseason spot. He’s been able to string together scoreless outings and pitch on back-to-back days.

On Friday, he faced five batters and allowed three hits -- one of which was a three-run homer to Robel García. Lefty Génesis Cabrera entered to face Kyle Schwarber and got him to fly out to the left field warning track.

“I think that’s the key to success, is the consistency,” Shildt said. “The walk, they got a few bloops, but we didn’t help ourselves either with the walk and hit batter. And of course, the three-run homer was a big blow. But it’s always about consistency and being able to control your counts and hit your pitches. … It was one of those nights, and we’ll get back out there [Saturday].”

Now the Cardinals turn to Saturday hoping to fend off the Cubs while looking for some extra help from the Rockies against the Brewers.

“We’ve got two games,” Hudson said. “Two games is our number. It’s in our own hands, it’s just, ‘Can we go out there and do what we’ve been doing, playing well all year? Can we sit back and make it simplified in our own heads to where we can be at our best?’”