ST. LOUIS — With a chance to prevent Rangers starter Jacob deGrom from securing the 100th win of his career, the Cardinals grinded the right-hander's pitch count high enough to get him out of the game with the minimum number of innings to qualify for a win. However, they could not scratch across enough offense to play spoilers.

The Cardinals were held scoreless through five innings and struck out eight times facing deGrom, a two-time National League Cy Young award winner. The four hits and one walk pushed across against the right-hander helped drive his pitch count to 91, leading to his exit at the start of the sixth inning of a game they trailed by two runs. They received a solo homer from Masyn Winn off reliever Peyton Gray but not much else in a 2-1 loss on Monday night at Busch Stadium.

The loss to deGrom and the Rangers allowed deGrom to become the 16th active player with 100 wins.

After deGrom's exit, the Cardinals combined for one hit, Winn's homer that marked his second of the season and first since homering in his hometown of Houston near the middle of April. An attempt to counter Rangers manager Skip Schumaker's decision to go to lefty Tyler Alexander in the seventh inning by calling on right-handed pinch-hitter Nelson Velazquez and Jose Fermin ended with no offense to show for it.

The light offense left the Cardinals (31-27) with 14 strikeouts and unable to match the two runs starter Michael McGreevy gave up in six innings.

McGreevy surrendered a run in the fourth inning on a double Ezequiel Duran hit to the left-field wall to score Brandon Nimmo from first base. Another came in the fifth with one out.

In the fifth frame, McGreevy threw a 3-2 cutter to Joc Pederson and saw it muscled to up the middle for a single that scored Danny Jansen.

Going up against deGrom

Pitching in the ballpark where he had an 8.44 ERA in 16 innings through three starts, deGrom's fourth start at Busch Stadium presented him with gritty at-bats. He ended eight by getting a strikeout.

The Rangers ace collected two strikeouts in the first inning and another in the second. He added to the total with another strikeout in the third and two apiece in the fourth and fifth frames. The Cardinals whiffed on 18 of the 47 pitches they were offered vs. deGrom, whose fastball sat at 97.1 mph and peaked at 99.2 mph, per Statcast.

The Cardinals put runners into scoring position in three of the first four innings they faced deGrom.

In the first, an error and a single that didn’t leave the infield put runners on first and second base with one out. The scoring attempt evaporated with strikeouts of Jordan Walker and Bryan Torres, who saw three pitches from deGrom before returning to the dugout. A chance in the second inning with runners on second and third base ended with leadoff hitter JJ Wetherholt lining out, and a two-out chance in the fourth inning disappeared when Victor Scott II flew out to left field with runners on the corners.

Rangers break open scoring

McGreevy was able to get within one strike of completing a scoreless fourth inning before a curveball Duran fished below the strike zone broke open the scoring in the series opener.

The curveball McGreevy invited Duran to chase was lined to left field with a 103.2-mph exit velocity. Left fielder Torres attempted to cut off the double to prevent extra bases with Nimmo beginning the at-bat on first base, but the ball zipped past him in his pursuit, caromed off the wall and redirected past him and toward the cut of the warning track. The wild hop after the aggressive angle allowed Nimmo to race to home for the game’s first run and Duran to reach second base with a double.

The scoring stopped at one with help from Winn.

In the at-bat after Duran’s, Winn ranged across the second base bag and made a sliding stop on the outfield grass of a hard-hit grounder by Alejandro Osuna. Winn, who had a potential hit taken away from him in the second inning on a sliding grab up the middle by Nicky Lopez, popped up from his sliding grab and fired a throw to first base in time to beat Osuna.

Left without ABS

The Cardinals were without Automate Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenges before the top half of the second inning wrapped. Early taps on the helmet from Walker and Ivan Herrera left them without the opportunity to challenge any close calls from home plate umpire Scott Barry for much of the series opener.

The first of the lost challenges came at the end of Walker’s at-bat in the first inning.

Batting with runners on first and second base and one out, Walker worked a 2-2 count to 3-2 by taking a slider that missed well below the zone to get his at-bat to a sixth pitch. He saw another slider that caught the bottom outside corner of the strike zone and was called a strike by Barry.

A replay review initiated by Walker showed deGrom’s pitch caught the strike zone.

Herrera, who had a 65% win percentage on ABS Challenges as a catcher heading into the series opener, challenged the second pitch of McGreevy’s encounter with Evan Carter in the top of the second inning. With Carter batting with two outs and a runner on second base, Herrera felt McGreevy’s 0-1 change-up to the lefty caught the strike zone.

The speedy review showed the pitch was 0.2 inches below the strike zone.

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