CHICAGO -- The invasion of red-shirted fans began Thursday night at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs knocked off the Cardinals, 3-0, in the opener of a four-game series.

Edwin Jackson pitched seven shutout innings, Anthony Rizzo drove in three runs and the Cubs turned in a strong defensive effort before a crowd of 35,379.

Jackson, who gave up three hits, has won five of his last seven starts and has allowed one or no runs in four of them. He's 3-0 with a 1.93 ERA in his last three outings.

"Like I (said) earlier in the season when I was struggling, it's a crazy game and you just have to keep throwing," Jackson said. "Just have to have confidence things will change and the ball will roll your way."

The Cubs won for the 10th time in 15 games.

Rizzo has five hits and five RBIs over his last 11 at-bats, continuing to follow a cold streak with a hot one. How does he become more consistent?

"Just contribute to the game, keep going, keep battling," he said. "The ups and downs of this game ... hopefully as I continue to progress it's just a straight line."

The color scheme at Wrigley only figures to turn more crimson over the weekend, as the red horde goes road tripping to Chicago. Many season-ticket holders scalp their tickets to summer Cardinals games to help make up for all the lost money from tickets they were forced to eat in April and May.

Truth be told, the Cubs are envious of the Cardinals way and hope to emulate their success in the coming years. In Baseball America's organizational talent rankings at the start of the season, the Cardinals ranked first, while the Cubs were up to No. 12.

"You look at their roster and most of their players are from their organization," manager Dale Sveum said. "They always have been able to build from their organization and obviously they always seem to have the key free agent pieces - the Beltrans, the Berkmans ... whoever you want to (pick).

"But the bottom line is it just comes from their organization ... because they always have had a strong minor league system. They send one guy down who's throwing 97 (mph) and bring up another guy throwing 97. They lose a starter in (Jaime) Garcia and they got guys waiting in the wings. That's what everyone tries to build for."

The Cardinals had six players from their system in Thursday's starting lineup, and another homegrown prospect - Matt Adams - entered in the fourth when Matt Holliday suffered a hamstring injury. The Cubs had three - Starlin Castro, Darwin Barney and Welington Castillo.

There is no chance of the Cubs emulating the Cardinals' success soon, but at least they're showing they have enough talent and character to turn around a miserable start.

"As of late, we've shown what we can do," Jackson said. "We have a lot of confidence. We just have to go in and be able to perform like that on a day-in, day-out basis."