TORONTO — For the second time in three days, the St. Louis Cardinals relief corps gave up one late run that provided the deciding margin in a road loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

A multitude of missed offensive opportunities paved the way to a walk-off loss in Friday’s series opener, but the Cardinals’ lack of scoring chances opened the door for a bitter 3-2 loss to the Blue Jays in the finale of a three-game set at the Rogers Centre on Sunday afternoon.

With the loss, the Cardinals were swept and fell below .500 (74-75) with 13 games remaining in the season.

The Blue Jays (72-78) scored the deciding run in the eighth inning when pinch hitter George Springer singled against Cardinals setup man Andrew Kittredge and then Nathan Lukes hit an opposite-field RBI double that scored Springer and broke a tie score.

Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas allowed two runs on three hits, including one home run, in five innings. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter in the outing. He did hit one batter.

Cardinals outfielders Lars Nootbaar and Jordan Walker drove in the club’s only runs. Nootbaar went 2 for 4 with a home run, while Walker went 1 for 4 with a double and an RBI.

The Cardinals went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base.

Blue Jays hurlers a stingy bunch

Since the start of August, Blue Jays starting pitchers had posted the best ERA in the majors entering Sunday’s games. Collectively, their starters registered a 3.02 ERA, and Blue Jays pitcher had held opposing hitters to a .213 average during that span.

Sunday’s starter Yariel Rodriguez had allowed just one run and struck out nine batters in his previous eight innings.

Rodriguez held the Cardinals to just one hit along with one walk and two strikeouts through his first four innings.

In the fifth inning, Ivan Herrera hit a leadoff single, and Walker lined an RBI double over the head of Blue Jays center fielder Nathan Lukes that one-hopped off the warning track to the outfield wall. That gave the Cardinals a 1-0 edge, and it marked the end of the outing for Rodriguez after 63 pitches.

Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough came on in relief and got Michael Siani on a line drive back to the mound for the second out of the inning. He then struck out Brendan Donovan to strand Walker on second base.

1 hit leads to 2 runs against Mikolas

Mikolas had faced the minimum number of batters through four innings thanks to the help of a double play and a runner thrown out in an attempt to advance on a pitch in the dirt.

He’d allowed two singles but nothing else heading into the fifth inning.

Then, Mikolas’ 1-2 sinker to Spencer Horwitz veered up and in and hit the left-handed batter. With the leadoff batter of the inning on base, Mikolas then went to a full count against Davis Schneider.

Schneider, who homered on Saturday for the first time since June 22, bashed a 3-2 sinker from Mikolas an estimated 413 feet to left-center field for a two-run home run.

Mikolas retired the next three batters to finish the inning before he turned the outing over to Steven Matz out of the bullpen to start the sixth inning.

Nootbaar goes deep

The Blue Jays stayed with the left-hander Yarbrough to start the seventh inning with Nootbaar due up first.

Nootbaar hadn’t hit a home run against a left-handed pitcher this season prior to his at-bat in the seventh inning. However, Yarbrough left a 2-0 fastball up and over the inner half of the plate. Nootbaar clobbered it over the right field wall with an exit velocity of 110 mph.

The solo home run tied the game 2-2 and gave Nootbaar just his second hit of the weekend series. His first home against a left-handed pitcher this season also gave him 10 home runs for the season.

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