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Trailing 5-1 after starter Miles Mikolas surrendered a three-run homer in the first inning to Eugenio Suarez and a solo homer in the fifth inning, also to Suarez, the Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs in the top half of the fifth against Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly. They pushed across one run on a ground-out from leadoff hitter Brendan Donovan but saw their opening to a big inning close with a strikeout from Ivan Herrera and a ground-out by Alec Burleson.

The Cardinals (51-49) threatened a comeback in the ninth inning when Jordan Walker doubled in a run with two outs. The threat was quieted by a fly-out from Victor Scott II that secured the Diamondbacks a 5-3 win and left the Cardinals with a third consecutive loss to open the second half of the regular season.

鈥淲e needed to have more productive at-bats than we did today,鈥� Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. 鈥淵ou had the shot there with the bases loaded. We didn't capitalize entirely on it. Just being able to execute at a higher level. I'm glad we got the tying run up to the plate. A little ahead of it, Scott there, but a decent swing. But at the end of the day, I think we needed to create more opportunities than we did.鈥�

With starters Andre Pallante and Sonny Gray combining to allow 15 runs in starts on Friday and Saturday, Mikolas and the Cardinals found themselves down 4-0 before the end of the first inning in the series finale.

Mikolas surrendered a leadoff triple to Corbin Carroll, allowed Carroll to score on a fielder鈥檚 choice that put Geraldo Perdomo on base and, after a walk, surrendered the first of two homers Suarez hit Sunday 鈥斅爋ne of four he hit during the weekend series.

鈥淚'd ask somebody else. I don't have a good answer for you right there, obviously,鈥� Mikolas said when asked how to pitch to Suarez.

Mikolas retired seven of the next eight batters he faced before allowing the solo homer to Suarez, an All-Star and one of the top trade chips heading into the July 31 deadline, in the third inning.

The four innings Mikolas provided brought the innings total of the Cardinals鈥� starting staff to 12 in the three-game series. His five runs tallied the total runs allowed by Cardinals starters over the three-game stretch to 20. The first he surrendered left the Cardinals trailing by three or more runs after the first inning for the second time in back-to-back games.

"It does, but that shouldn't be an excuse," Marmol said of the pressure an early deficit can put on an offense. "You have to be able to separate it and just take care of business and still take productive at-bats and continue to grind out at-bats and keep the line moving. Yes and no. You have to still overcome that."

Upon Mikolas' exit, relievers Steven Matz, Riley O鈥橞rien, JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsley each logged their first innings of the second half and turned in scoreless outings.

鈥淎ll those guys needed to touch the baseball today,鈥� Marmol said. 鈥淩egardless of if we were up or down, we were going to map it out the way we did. I could have let (Mikolas) try to get one more, but I think the score might have changed on us if we didn't. I felt like we did the right thing at the right time.鈥�

Looking for a response to the early hole, Scott's double in the third inning and successful steal of third base put the speedster in position to score with ease on an RBI single from Herrera that gave the Cardinals their first run.

Two innings later, the Cardinals had their chance to break through and potentially chase Kelly from his start as his command faltered.

Kelly issued three consecutive walks to begin the fifth inning, giving the Cardinals a chance to hit with the bases loaded and no outs just as the top of their lineup was due.

Donovan, the Cardinals鈥� lone All-Star this season, fouled off three of the first five pitches he saw before rolling a grounder to first base on the sixth pitch of his at-bat. Herrera, who entered Sunday with a .400 batting average over 45 at-bats with runners in scoring position, chased and whiffed on the final two pitches he saw of his at-bat. And Burleson, whose .293 batting average and .810 on-base plus slugging percentage have elevated him into a starting role, pulled a grounder to first base to end an inning that could have catapulted the Cardinals back into Sunday's series finale.聽

鈥淵ou have the guys that you want up, and unfortunately, we can only scratch a run. That's where you want to throw up a crooked number,鈥� Marmol said. 鈥淚 felt we went to the (bullpen) at the right spot and gave ourselves a shot. They didn't score. Once we went to the (bullpen), those guys did a really nice job and gave us the best opportunity to try to come back in that game. We just didn't have enough.鈥�