The Paul Goldschmidt's 17th home run of the season gave the Arizona Diamondbacks a shot, but Joe Saunders couldn't keep the St. Louis Cardinals from adding to their lead and the Cardinals bullpen shut down Arizona for the game's final three innings in a 5-2 win at Busch Stadium Wednesday night.
The Diamondbacks dropped to 0-5 against St. Louis this season and can only hope to avoid another series sweep Thursday. Arizona also fell under .500 (58-59) for the first time in almost three weeks and has lost eight of the last 11 games.
David Freese hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning, Allen Craig homered in the fifth and Rafael Furcal tripled and drove in two runs. Craig and Furcal drove in three of the Cardinals' runs with two out.
The Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on Goldschmidt's home run, but Freese's homer in the bottom of the inning gave St. Louis a 2-1 lead.
The Diamondbacks missed a chance for a big inning in the sixth, though a run did score on a double-play groundout.
Saunders (6-9) had been very good on the road of late, but Wednesday wasn't his night. He allowed five runs on seven hits in six innings.
The Diamondbacks, according to this report, fell to 3-44 when scoring three or fewer runs in a game. Miguel Montero had two of the D-backs' five hits in the game.