ST. LOUIS -- His long-term role for the rest of this season far from certain, Andre Pallante had a chance to make his case as a member of the Cardinals’ starting rotation on Monday.

While the first four innings were strong, a forgettable fifth ended Pallante’s day early and sent the Cardinals to their fourth loss in their last five games as the New York Mets cruised to a 6-0 win at Busch Stadium in a makeup game of a May 8 rainout.

“What it boils down to is, you know, two-strike pitches, and I really didn’t have a great feel for my curveball today,” Pallante said. “That's my best putaway pitch, and not to be able to put that underneath the zone, over the plate, and get some swing and miss hurt me a lot. That's an option I've had for a good amount and I just didn't have it today.”

Pallante, who posted a starting staff-best 3.33 ERA in July, allowed just one run on one hit and one walk through the first four innings.

But for as efficient as he was through the game’s first 12 outs, it all fell apart in the fifth. After getting Jose Iglesias to ground out to lead off the inning, the next five Mets reached against Pallante, with three hits coming in two-strike counts. Former Cardinal Harrison Bader had an RBI double and Tyrone Taylor’s bases-loaded three-run double broke the game open.

“They were being a little more aggressive to his fastball early,” catcher Pedro Pagés said. “We were attacking them early. They started jumping more on him and then just execution with two strikes. We were just leaving balls a little too over the plate, or not getting it down enough, or not getting it off the plate enough, but that was the biggest difference.”

Pallante’s final line was 4 2/3 innings, five runs, five hits, two strikeouts and two walks.

“Just a lot of balls in play, which is what he does, but not at people and that usually leads to runs with him,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “So, yeah, the walk scored earlier in the game with the wild pitch, but the stuff was coming out well. He looked good, just that one inning kind of sped up and got him.”

Despite Pallante’s strong overall numbers, his grip on the fifth starter’s spot is tenuous at best. Pallante looked to be the odd man out after the Cardinals’ acquisition of Erick Fedde from the White Sox in a three-team trade on July 29, but he stayed in the rotation after Lance Lynn went on the injured list with right knee inflammation on July 31. With Lynn expected to resume baseball activities in the near future, Pallante has a small window to continue to make his case.

“Try and not think about that,” Pallante said. “I told them when I have a start against a team, I'm going to be ready to start against that team. So, it was just going out there and trying to execute pitches as good as I can.”

The Cardinals’ offense couldn’t find any traction against Sean Manaea, who pitched seven scoreless innings. Manaea, who has not allowed a run in his last 15 2/3 innings, scattered six hits and struck out 10.

St. Louis had a pair of runners on in both the third and fourth innings, only to have Manaea slam the door closed with strikeouts. Manaea retired eight of the last nine batters he faced, with the lone Cardinals runner in that span reaching on an error.

“He's been pitching well, and he had some overpowering stuff today with the fastball,” Marmol said. “It was just tough to kind of string anything together against him and then when we did, we were kind of one hit away from doing something.”

The struggles continued a season-long pattern for the Cardinals’ bats against left-handed pitchers. St. Louis is hitting just .227 with an OPS of .636 against southpaws this season.

The Cardinals were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.

“It's easy to just point out the runners in scoring position, but I mean, some guys quite honestly are feeling good about where they're at and some guys aren't,” Marmol said. “And I know that's kind of been the case throughout the course of the whole year, but it's reality and today is no different.”