The Orioles began their nine-game road trip by claiming the first series in St. Louis. They’ll take it.

They’d rather have a sweep.

An early deficit proved to be insurmountable, but just barely, in a 7-5 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

A team that scored 21 runs in the first two games was slowed until Coby Mayo’s 446-foot, three-run homer off left-hander Caleb Ferguson in the seventh inning that cut the Cardinals’ lead to 6-4. Jackson Holliday led off the eighth by reaching on an infield single against George Soriano, stole second base and scored on Gunnar Henderson’s double.

Rookie reliever Anthony Nunez followed his two scoreless innings and five strikeouts Tuesday with two strikeouts today to begin the eighth, but he allowed an insurance run when former Oriole Ramón Urías walked, moved to second base on a wild pitch and scored on Nathan Church’s soft single into left field.

The St. Louis bullpen is a hazard zone, but Riley O’Brien recorded his 34th save in 39 attempts after Colton Cowser’s two-out single.

The result lowered the Orioles’ record to 65-69. It also left them three games back for the last Wild Card.

Left-hander Trevor Rogers allowed six runs and seven hits with seven strikeouts in five innings after posting a 2.57 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in his last 14 starts. He surrendered six home runs in those starts but gave up two today.

A few other observations from home:

Orioles tried third approach to winning

They rode an eight-run fifth inning Tuesday to an easy 13-1 victory. The only drama involved which position player would be recruited in relief.

Catcher Pedro Pagés tossed a scoreless ninth.

They raced out to a 7-0 lead yesterday heading into the bottom of the second inning, blew it and won 8-7 on Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s RBI double in the ninth.

Today was a much higher degree of difficulty. The Orioles fell behind 5-0 after four innings.

They began the day 42-23 when scoring first and 23-45 when the opponent took the initial lead.

Cowser had a left-on-left sacrifice fly in the fifth after Encarnacion-Strand doubled, Dylan Beavers walked and Mayo grounded into a force. The comeback attempt gained steam later but fizzled.

Changing Rogers’ tune

Rogers cruised through the first inning and was down 3-0 in the second before recording an out.

Alec Burleson poked a sinker past third base for a leadoff single and Joshua Báez doubled to left on a 95.1 mph fastball. Blaze Jordan launched a changeup 416 feet to center field, and the Cardinals became the team with the fast start in the series.

Jordan was hitting .167/.222/.236 with no home runs in 81 plate appearances at home this season, compared to .297/.313/.451 with two homers in 115 plate appearances on the road.

Opponents batted .202 with a .272 slugging percentage against Rogers’ changeup last season. They were batting .310 with a .429 slugging this season before today.

It’s his main secondary pitch, which creates an issue.

Rogers struck out Jordan with a sweeper in the fourth inning after Burleson’s leadoff single … on a changeup. Urías hit a two-run homer on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. None of them were changeups.

Another run scored in the fifth on Burleson’s bases-loaded grounder. The rally began with José Fermín’s one-out single on a changeup.

Jordan was helped off the field in the eighth after getting tangled with Henderson on a tag play at third base.

Graceffo went off-script

The Cardinals were reduced to a bullpen game this afternoon, which screamed trouble. For them. It wasn’t a fresh unit. It had disaster written all over.

Gordon Graceffo was making his 81st career appearance and only his second start, the other coming in Game 2 of a July 10, 2024 doubleheader against the Royals. He allowed three runs in 3 1/3 innings. He hadn’t thrown more than 2 1/3 innings this season.

No one could have predicted three perfect innings today, but Graceffo went nine up, nine down with four strikeouts. He was averaging 5.4 strikeouts per nine innings this season.

That’s some serious ad-libbing.

Graceffo threw 38 pitches, 25 for strikes.

Left-hander Justin Bruihl replaced Graceffo and Holliday greeted him with a double on the second pitch thrown in the fourth inning.

Bad matchup mangles Cardinals’ comfortable margin

Perhaps manager Oli Marmol didn’t have many other options. Or he just loves to live dangerously.

Marmol let a lefty face Mayo with two on and no outs in the fifth and got away with it on the force play. He stuck with Ferguson in the seventh after Encarnacion-Strand singled and Beavers walked with one out.

There’s flirting with disaster and there’s throwing yourself at it.

Mayo mashed his 18th homer and his 14th against lefties. He began the day batting .304/.361/.723 against them.

Et cetera

Reliever Cam Sanders threw two scoreless innings after replacing Rogers. He walked one and struck out four in another impressive outing. But he also allowed his first hit in his last six appearances. … Félix Bautista is scheduled to pitch tonight for Triple-A Norfolk in the continuation of his injury rehab assignment in Durham. He was charged with three runs and walked three batters in one-third of an inning Sunday at Double-A Chesapeake.