ST. LOUIS -- Since MLB’s introduction of PitchCom this season, the running joke among the Cardinals had always been that Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina -- the winningest starting battery in baseball history -- didn’t even need the electronic technology because all their time together had given them some sort of telepathy in terms of what pitches should be called next.

On Thursday at Busch Stadium, with Wainwright so flummoxed by a couple of odd situations that led to five innings worth of struggles, the 40-year-old pitcher and 39-year-old catcher disregarded their mild resistance to change and desires to do things as they always had and experimented with baseball’s newest technology.

After all, as a frustrated Wainwright put it, what did the duo have to lose after the Brewers battered him for 10 hits, four runs (three earned) and three two-out scores in the Cardinals' 4-3 loss? Why break it out in the fifth inning Thursday when Wainwright and Molina had previously used the traditional way to signal pitches over their previous 312 starts?

“Well, just in case something was up,” said Wainwright, who lost for a second time this season against Milwaukee. “They had 10 hits, so we might as well throw it out there and see what happens. Mix anything in there. Throw anything against the wall and see what sticks.”

Wainwright, who came into the game 3-0 with a dazzling 1.35 ERA in May, had reason to be suspicious, frustrated and even experimental after what happened to him against the surging Brewers. The 10 hits were the most Wainwright has allowed since surrendering 12 to the Cubs on Sept. 28, 2019. He allowed at least one hit in all five of his innings, and the Brewers had multiple hits three times.

Even more frustrating to Wainwright was yielding three two-out runs.

The same thing happened April 14 in Milwaukee when he surrendered four runs -- three of which came with two outs -- in his shortest outing of the season (4 1/3 innings). Wainwright was bothered upon hearing that of the 10 two-out runs he’s allowed this season, six have been against Milwaukee.

“That bugs me a lot,” he said. “They’re doing a good job with their two-out approach and their two-strike approach, too. They’ve adjusted to me, and I’ve got to adjust to them. They’ve got a really good approach off me, and I need to switch it up a little. It seemed like a lot of hits and nothing but runners on and ducks on the pond the whole time. Sometimes, you’re grinding out there and you’ve got to make pitches, but three two-out runs is what it comes down to.

“I’m doing a good job against everybody else,” said Wainwright, who surrendered just 24 two-out runs last season and is someone who prides himself on being able to work out of jams. “I made some bad pitches, but they hit some good pitches too. It’s just a head-scratcher. I have great career numbers off that team, but the last couple of times, they’ve made me work really hard.”

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol stressed he wasn’t worried about Wainwright’s struggles against a Milwaukee squad that has already touched him up for eight runs and two homers this season, saying, “[Two-out runs] have bitten him a couple of times, but I’m not overly concerned, though.”

Now 5-4 with a 3.12 ERA, Wainwright admitted he reluctantly caved to the PitchCom wave because of the numerous stories throughout baseball of teams figuring out ways to relay signs to hitters. A baseball purist who loves nothing more than the constant cat-and-mouse game between hitter and pitcher, Wainwright sounded resigned to the new technology being the only way to ensure signs aren’t being stolen. The Cardinals have been one of the few MLB teams to ignore the technology -- largely because of the reluctance of Wainwright and Molina -- but that changed in Thursday’s fifth inning.

“Unfortunately, the game is in a way if you don’t use PitchCom, you’re kind of silly because everybody is relaying everything,” he said. “It takes away the best part of the game to me -- hitter vs. pitcher is the best part of baseball. I’m not saying the Brewers are doing anything -- I don’t know if they were or not -- but it is happening around the game and it’s always been a part of the game.

“I’m all for whatever allows me to throw a pitch without anyone else knowing what I’m throwing, besides the catcher,” Wainwright added. “That would be worth it. But PitchCom worked well, and that was the first time we used it and that was the first time Yadi has used it.”