ST. LOUIS _ The St. Louis Cardinals wasted an excellent pitching performance by emergency starter Daniel Ponce de Leon as their offense continued to struggle and their bullpen let them down in a 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night at Busch Stadium.
The only winner in a Cardinals jersey may have been Ponce de Leon, whose outing seemed to guarantee him another start in the very near future.
Ponce de Leon had allowed just one run in 6 2/3 innings, but his reliever, Andrew Miller, gave up a home run to Jake Lamb, the first and, it turned out, the only batter he faced and Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer off John Gant in the eighth.
The Cardinals got two runners on with no out in the bottom of the eighth, but got only one run. Tommy Edman struck out, Jose Martinez grounded out to advance the runners and Paul DeJong drove one in with a single that shortstop Nick Ahmed made a diving stop on but didn't have a play at first. With runners on first and third with two out, Paul Goldschmidt came to the plate and grounded out to end the inning.
The Cardinals had the tying run at the plate again in the ninth, but Kolten Wong was struck out by reliever Greg Holland to end the game.
Catcher Matt Wieters had gotten the Cardinals even with a solo homer in the fifth inning. On a 3-2 pitch, Wieters homered to right to continue his sudden mastery against left-handed pitchers. After going 0-19 against lefties to start the season, Wieters is four for his last nine and three of those four hits are home runs. He has six homers on the season.
Ponce de Leon, unexpectedly thrust onto the mound after scheduled starter Adam Wainwright experienced back spasms, struck out five batters in the first four innings before giving up a home run to Christian Walker. He came out after retiring the first two batters in the seventh, having struck out seven, walked none and allowing just three hits. He threw 105 pitches, 69 strikes.
But that was as far as manager Mike Shildt wanted to push Ponce de Leon, so he came out in favor of the left-handed Miller when the left-handed Lamb came to the plate. He put a 1-2 pitch just over the wall in right field for his second home run of the season. Miller came out for Gant, who gave up a single before ending the inning.
Before Wieters' homer, the Cardinals had just one hit through four innings, a single by Matt Carpenter in the second from his new spot in the lineup, No. 5. Arizona starter Robbie Ray struck out four through four innings and Carpenter's hit was the only ball hit out of the infield for the Cardinals before Wieters went deep.
Ray went 6 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out eight.
Walker, who has taken over for Goldschmidt at first base for the Diamondbacks, hit his 18th home run of the season into the Arizona bullpen in left.
Before that, Ponce de Leon had allowed just one hit, a single to center by Eduardo Escobar in the first.
