ST. LOUIS -- The weekend at Busch Stadium began with Cardinals starter Dustin May, for perhaps the final time, decked out in a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform.
During Friday’s batting practice, May donned the Dodger blue set for a photo op following a small pregame ceremony during which the former pitcher of the reigning champs received his World Series ring.
Two days later, on Sunday afternoon, May made it his aim to put one over on the franchise that drafted him in the third round a decade ago. But May’s quality start wasn’t enough to beat the Dodgers as the Cardinals dropped the series finale, 4-1, to halt a six-game winning streak.
May faced plenty of traffic, allowing seven hits and walking two, but he kept the ball on the ground to mitigate some of it. At one point, he produced ground-ball double plays in three straight innings -- including a 1-6-3 that he started by wheeling around on a comebacker to end the second inning and keep a runner on third from scoring.
Still, three hits and a walk contributed to the Dodgers scoring two runs in that second frame. May navigated six innings, allowing three earned runs.
“I thought he did a nice job of competing, giving us a look -- especially against these guys across the way,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Didn’t get ahead of a lot of guys, but got back into counts.”
May, who was not available for comment postgame, had an animated reaction to yet another inning-ending double play in the top of the fourth, as though his energy in keeping the game within reach could will the Cardinals’ bats to punch back against his former team.
But as he’s been to most of his opponents so far in 2026, Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski was, again on Sunday, an enigma to the St. Louis lineup.
The Cardinals rapped six hits against Wrobleski, but none of the extra-base variety. St. Louis failed to muster a run against the 25-year-old lefty, who has been one of the league’s stingiest starters through this early stretch of the season.
Wrobleski kept that up Sunday, lowering his ERA to 1.25 by pounding the strike zone and keeping scoring threats at bay.
The Cardinals had just two at-bats with a runner in scoring position against the left-hander, going 0-for-2. However, another such chance evaporated when Nathan Church was caught stealing second with a runner on third to end the second inning.
Despite underwhelming results, it wasn’t a game in which Marmol saw many ways that his lineup could have approached it any better.
“I actually thought we swung the bat really well,” Marmol said. “You look at our overall contact -- we took really good swings. It’s one of those games where, if we repeat what we did today offensively, I think we’re in a really good spot over 162.
“We stayed in the zone, we struck the ball well, right at people. There’s not a lot you can control after that.”
St. Louis batters didn't strike out against Wrobleski, but did strike out twice in the ninth inning against reliever Tanner Scott.
For a team coming off six straight wins, the process of its approach was just as sound Sunday as it has been for the preceding week.
“Right when the last out was made of that game, there were several guys, almost in unison, kind of grabbing their stuff, saying, ‘Helluva game, keep swinging it,’” Marmol said. “There were just different comments made as far as the process, not so much the result. And that's music to my ears, because they're thinking about it the right way.”
May’s ERA in his first year as a Cardinal sits at 5.15 despite his latest solid start. But the more he pitches, the more the pair of rough games he had against Tampa Bay and Detroit to kick off his Cardinals career will be outliers.
Over his last five outings, May has compiled a 2.45 ERA, pitching 29 1/3 innings while allowing eight earned runs and logging four quality starts in that span.
One curiosity of the weekend was the lack of fireworks from Shohei Ohtani, who went 0-for-2 with a walk facing May on Sunday and did not record a hit in the series.
His 0-for-12 line against Cardinals pitching marked the most career at-bats for Ohtani during a three-game series in which he went hitless.