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The Cardinals' Willson Contreras hits a two-run home run in the sixth inning Monday night.

Carmen Mlodzinski was rather straightforward in assessing his performance in the Pirates' 6-3 loss to the Cardinals tonight at Busch Stadium. 

"I honestly can't say I really liked my stuff today," he said after allowing two runs on four hits with two strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings, as his team dropped a fifth straight game to fall to 12-24 on the season. "I think the results were OK, not great but not terrible. I think I kinda had to battle with not having my best stuff in a sense, but was able to get through close to five innings without having the quality stuff I try to have every time out. So, I guess it's a positive in the sense I was able to battle." 

Mlodzinski doesn't show emotion often, but he didn't seem pleased when pulled by Derek Shelton after recording the first two outs -- the latter a strikeout of Jose Barrero -- of the fifth inning:

That reaction, at a time when the Pirates were clinging to a 3-2 lead, was a result of Mlodzinski's frustration in himself, he would say later. He said that, any time he gets taken out of a game and it's a close one, he's going to display some frustration. Instead of throwing 88 pitches and allowing solo home runs to Barrero and Alec Burleson in the third inning, he wishes he would have taken better control of things when he had the chance. 

"Just feel like there were some things I could have done better today in general," he said when I brought up the above scene. "I think just frustration at myself for not doing that necessarily. That's kind of it on that."

Mlodzinski has now been limited to facing 18 batters in two consecutive starts after also making his way through the Cubs' lineup twice in his last outing on Wednesday. In his seven starts this season, he has shown signs of being reliable over the course of a few innings before fading in the latter stages of his rather brief outings. He's yet to allow a run in the first two innings of a start all season, but has failed to find success beyond that, allowing a total of 21 runs between the third and fifth innings. 

"I think there are positives to look at. I have success the first time through. I just gotta figure out a way to make better adjustments the second and third time," he said. "I think the last three outings I've done a little better of a job the second and third time through, or I haven't necessarily got to the third time. But I think I'm just continuing to make the adjustments, and I feel like that's all you can do in this game. Continue to adjust and whatever is working, obviously roll with that. And then make the adjustments when needed."

Mlodzinski ultimately fell short of completing five innings for the third time this season, as Shelton made the decision to turn to Ryan Borucki and Chase Shugart to face the top of the Cardinals' left-handed heavy order in the fifth and sixth. Shelton knew where Mlodzinski was in regard to his pitch count, as well as the issues he's had deeper into games, so he displayed trust the matchups. 

Borucki has limited left-handed hitters to a batting average under .100 this season and did his job in getting two left-handers out before Shugart entered in the sixth. He's been incredibly efficient against right-handed hitters this season, entering tonight's game allowing a .139 batting average against and .385 OPS against while striking out 10 batters and walking none. 

"I think we've seen Carmen over the course of a little bit have difficulties there," Shelton explained. "Three left-handers. We've got a pretty good left-handed reliever. We've got the stretch of right-handers with a guy that's been really, really good vs. right-handers."

It wasn't Shugart's night, though. He walked the first batter he faced, allowed this go-ahead, two-run home run to Willson Contreras ... 

... and gave up four straight hits -- three singles and a double to Barrero that scored two runs -- without recording an out. Of the six hitters that reached base against him, all but two were hitting from the right side of the plate. 

"I don't know Shug's numbers off the top of my head, but I'm saying batting average and OPS is probably in the .150 and less than .400 range," Shelton said. "We got the right matchups. Unfortunately, we didn't get the guys out today."

Shugart was clearly disappointed in his effort following the game, acknowledging the trouble the leadoff walk to Nolan Arenado put him in and the "terrible offspeed pitch" he threw to Contreras in a 1-2 count. From there, things just spiraled, leading to yet another collapse and another loss added to a column that now includes 24 in 36 games. 

"After that, I didn't do a good job of minimizing damage," Shugart said. "They're a good-hitting team and I knew that coming into it. It's not about what you've done, it's about what you did. You reflect back on this one and just learn from it. Tomorrow is a new day, so we'll get right back to it."