PITTSBURGH — A day after finding a way to best a pitcher with one of the lowest ERAs in the majors, the St. Louis Cardinals struggled to find any offensive rhythm against one of the pitchers with the worst ERAs on the Pirates.

The Cardinals could not connect on any of their chances, even those invited by five walks from Pittsburgh lefty Martin Perez, and stumbled in the series finale to a 5-0 loss Wednesday at PNC Park. The most lopsided game of the series and the only one decided by a score other than 2-1 gave the Pirates some buoyancy in the division race yet to come. The Cardinals tripped on their way back home having missed on a chance to win both road series coming out of the All-Star break and push the Pirates a game further back.

The Cardinals eked out two runs against Paul Skenes on Tuesday night to keep the Pirates (52-50) from tying them in the standings. The Cardinals (53-48) scored a total of three runs in the 27 innings of their visit to the confluence. Two of those came on solo homers.

Pirates slugger Rowdy Tellez, a last-minute addition to Wednesday’s lineup, produced two runs with his first two swings of the game.

The Pirates got four runs in one inning Wednesday to give Perez (2-5) an early lead. He entered the game with a 5.61 ERA and pitched six scoreless against the Cardinals. They ran themselves out of a potential rally in the second inning. The Cardinals loaded the bases with help from two of Perez’s walks in the fifth inning and then stranded all three runners. Through the final two innings they got to see the Bucs’ lefty, the Cardinals went 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position. They finished 0 for 5 in the game.

Last-minute addition lifts Pirates

Tellez wasn’t even supposed to be in the lineup Wednesday.

The Pirates’ initial batting order did not have the left-handed slugger in the game against left-hander Matthew Liberatore. No wonder. Going into the game, Tellez has hit .148 against lefties this season with four hits in 27 at-bats. He’s struck out in 11 of those chances and slugged a paltry .259. On two pitches from Liberatore, Tellez got two more hits against lefties for his season line and produced two runs — and his second ever splashdown into the Allegheny River.

When Bryan Reynolds was unable to play due to back spasms, the Pirates scratched their All-Star outfielder and plugged in Tellez.

He delivered their first RBI with an single in the second inning that started a four-run rally. In the fourth, Tellez led off the inning and ended Liberatore’s day with a solo homer. Tellez’s ninth homer of the season cleared the seats above right field and left PNC Park. It plopped down in the famed river beyond a walkway. The ball traveled an estimated 447 feet to become the 78th home run in PNC history to reach the Allegheny.

Missed catch prolongs Pirates' rally

Cardinals starter Liberatore was already trying to calm a disruptive inning when he got the line drive to center field that could have abbreviated the whole thing.

Liberatore hit a batter, walked a batter with the bases loaded, and allowed two singles to help the Pirates to a 2-0 in the second inning. That bases-loaded freebie RBI to Andrew McCutchen kept the bases loaded with one out. Liberatore coaxed a fly ball to shallow center field from No. 2 hitter Nick Gonzales to get a toehold on the inning and keep all of the runners in place.

The Pirates’ No. 3 hitter, Connor Joe, followed with a line drive to the left-center gap that hung up long enough to give both teams hope it would reshape the game.

If it dropped, all the runners were dashing on contact.

If it was caught, the Cardinals escaped the inning.

It was both.

Dylan Carlson’s diving reach for the ball got his glove on it for the apparent catch, but his landing appeared to jar the glove and dislodged the out. The ball got away from him, allowing Joe a two-run double that beefed up the lead to 4-0 before Liberatore got a third out. It took the lefty 40 pitches to navigate nine batters, four runs, and three outs in the sideways second.

Liberatore’s limit

All those pitches may have played a part in what happened two innings later.

Pressed into a bullpen game by this past weekend’s doubleheader in Atlanta, the Cardinals turned to Liberatore to pitch as deep as he could into Wednesday’s series finale. They did not start the game with some hard and fast pitch limit for the lefty, more of a nebulous possible number of pitches and a keen eye on the velocity.

The Cardinals see fatigue for Liberatore manifest in a dip in velocity that can happen quickly, and it’s at that point they wanted to remove the lefty.

Liberatore had a brisk, perfect third inning. His fastball touched 93.1 mph and it hugged right there around 92.5 mph. He revved up a sinker to 94.9 mph in that second inning, and in the third it left his fingers 91.9 mph. When he went out for the fourth inning, that velocity dip happened — to 91.1 mph. He fired a fastball at 90.1 mph with his final pitch and Tellez launched it into the river to float the Bucs to a 5-0 lead.

Liberatore yielded to the bullpen after the three-plus innings.

Chris Roycroft shouldered the next three innings without allowing a run.

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