ST. LOUIS — Hurt by big innings and homers in previous starts, Cardinals left-hander Matthew Liberatore had the combination of the two flip what began as a scoreless start on Wednesday vs. the Diamondbacks.

After working three scoreless innings vs. Arizona, Liberatore surrendered six runs in the fourth inning of his start at Busch Stadium. The left-hander gave up the first of the six runs on a bloop single and then was stung by a two-run double and back-to-back homers that came off the bats of LuJames Groover and Ketel Marte.

The forgetful inning erased the one-run lead Liberatore had heading into the fourth and sunk the Cardinals in their 9-4 loss at Busch Stadium.

For Liberatore, the Cardinals’ opening day starter to begin this season, the six-run frame left him in a position for his fifth losing decision of the year and with enough runs to leave his ERA at 5.51 after he exited following 5 1/3 innings.

The Cardinals (42-36) scratched across one run in response to the six-run frame, but had little offense to show in the frames that followed. By that point, Arizona had turned to its bullpen after lefty Mitch Bratt exited his big-league debut with three innings of work and one run allowed.

The first two runs the Cardinals scored came off the bat of rookie Blaze Jordan. Jordan singled home a run in the second inning against Bratt and lifted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth off right-hander Ryan Thompson.

As they did on Tuesday night, the Cardinals made noise in the ninth of a game that felt like it had already slipped away from them.

On Wednesday, Jose Fermin hit a solo homer off Drey Jameson and Jordan singled home Lars Nootbaar after Nootbaar tripled.

Lopsided inning hurt by hard hits

Liberatore faced nine hitters and allowed five hits in his troubling fourth inning. The inning began with a single Corbin Carroll hit against a shift and reached a tipping point with three consecutive extra-base hits that combined to score five runs.

After Liberatore saw Tommy Troy’s blooper drop into right field for a single that scored a run and kept runners on first and second base, Liberatore inched his way to escaping the inning by getting Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to pop up to first base. Two pitches later, he got Ildemaro Vargas in an 0-2 count by landing a sinker and curveball for a strike.

Liberatore went back to his curveball two pitches later, but hung it over the middle of the plate. Vargas pulled the curveball into the right field corner for a double that scored two runs and gave Arizona its first lead of the night.

The hard hits didn’t stop there.

Having surrendered 15 homers in 15 starts entering Wednesday, Liberatore surrendered back-to-back homers in a span of three pitches.

Liberatore had a first-pitch cutter hit to left field by LuJames Groover for a two-run homer. Two pitches later, a 1-0 sinker to Marte was hit with a 109.3 mph exit and 416 feet to left field for a solo blast.

Soft hits set up six-run inning

Before the hard contact Liberatore allowed on extra-base hits sent the fourth inning into a spiral, the lefty saw soft contact create traffic on the bases.

The leadoff single Liberatore surrendered to Carroll had a 77.4 mph exit velocity and was just out of the reach of third baseman Fermin’s dive attempt. Following a walk to Gabriel Moreno, Liberatore put Nolan Arenado in an 0-2 count and got his former Cardinal teammate to chase a change-up out of the strike zone on the third pitch of the at-bat.

Arenado’s lung to make contact on Liberatore’s offspeed pitch resulted in a 68.9 mph line drive that kicked off the glove of Jordan, who made a diving attempt at first base to try and snag the liner for an out. Instead, the ball was redirected and found second baseman JJ Wetherholt, leaving the Cardinals with just the forceout at second base.

In the at-bat that followed Arenado's, Liberatore got to two strikes on Troy three pitches into their encounter. Liberatore fired a 94.4-mph fastball up and in on Troy, leading him to chase the 1-2 pitch and bloop it to shallow right field with a 67.9 mph exit velocity, per Statcast.

The blooper found the outfield grass for an RBI single despite Jordan Walker’s sliding attempt to catch it

Getting a run on Bratt

Jordan welcomed fellow rookie Bratt to the majors with a gritty at-bat vs. the lefty.

Jordan stepped into the batter’s box with Fermin on third base and two outs in the second inning. He whiffed on a first-pitch slider and then got a piece of a fastball Bratt placed high and away.

The Cardinals’ rookie took a slurve for a ball to keep his at-bat alive before fouling off three consecutive pitches kept it going. On the seventh pitch he saw, Jordan lined a slurve past Arenado for a single to left field that had a 103-mph exit velocity and scored Fermin.

Matching up early

Facing a rookie starter who had not pitched past the fifth inning in any of his Class AAA starts this year before his Wednesday call-up, the Cardinals saw Bratt for three innings before Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo turned to his bullpen.

The move led the Cardinals to turn to their bench for left-handed bats with the lefty starter removed from his MLB debut. Despite the efforts to play matchups by bringing in Alec Burleson to pinch hit in the fourth for Pedro Pages and Jimmy Crooks from the bench in Nelson Velazquez’s spot in the order.

Facing Thompson in the bottom of the fourth, the Cardinals had their first two batters reach base with singles and pushed across one run with a sacrifice fly from Jordan.

Jordan's sacrifice fly left a runner on second base with two outs and Pages' spot in the order due up. The chance to face a righty with a runner in scoring position led Cardinals manager Oli Marmol to swap in Burleson for Pages.

Burleson generated hard contact with a sharp grounder, but that was hit right at Thompson for the inning-ending out.

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