ST. LOUIS -- The Dodgers opened the 2019 season by hitting at least one home run in their first 10 games. That power shorted out in the first two games in St. Louis, and despite a late-inning recharge in Wednesday’s third game, it wasn’t enough to push Los Angeles past the Cardinals in a 7-2 loss.

Joc Pederson’s solo home run in the sixth broke a streak of 18 scoreless innings by the Dodgers. It was followed by a solo shot by Max Muncy in the seventh, but the homers came wrapped around a three-run St. Louis sixth that saw starter Kenta Maeda chased from the game.

“I got it pretty good,” said Pederson. “I’m not that familiar with the stadium and whatnot, so I wasn’t really sure, but I definitely got it off the barrel and I was seeing the ball pretty well tonight.”

Muncy’s home run off Cardinals reliever Tyler Webb continued the Dodgers’ success against the left-hander. Webb allowed nine earned runs -- and three home runs -- in six innings against the Dodgers in 2018.

The Dodgers entered Wednesday’s game leading the National League in batting average, runs, hits, total bases, home runs, RBI, walks and OPS. They were also fourth in the Majors in batting average with runners in scoring position, entering hitting .309 in such situations.

That number remains unchanged, as the Dodgers did not take an at-bat with a runner in scoring position in the contest.

“I think that you've got to give these guys credit, those [Cardinals] pitchers,” manager Dave Roberts said. “They’re making pitches when they need to and they get the strikeout, the soft contact, getting out of trouble. Tonight we really didn’t have a whole lot of opportunities.”

Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty credited the support of his defense, saying, “I trusted [catcher Yadier Molina]. Trusted the defense. That double play [in the first inning] was big.”

That double play was the ultimate result of an at-bat that saw Justin Turner battle Flaherty for 14 pitches as the third batter of the game. He saw an additional six pitches in his second plate appearance, and eventually saw 21 of Flaherty’s 99 total offerings.

“Just battling, trying to stay alive and foul off tough pitches and, you know, he won,” Turner said. “You see 14 pitches from a starter in the first inning and, you know, try to get his pitch count up. And obviously that helps. You just would rather have it not end on a double play and end the inning and try to find a way to keep the inning going.”

Ultimately, Pederson took a long-term view of the Los Angeles offense.

“I think that’s just baseball,” he said. “There’s ups and downs.

“You kind of just have to trust yourself. It’s obviously frustrating when things aren’t going your way and you’re hitting balls hard and they say it’s going to equal out. You've just got to stick to the process, and over 162 [games], hopefully the results are there.”

Maeda dueled with Flaherty through five innings, with the latter preventing any Dodger from reaching second base before Pederson’s blast, projected by Statcast at 375 feet.

Before the game, Roberts praised Maeda’s progress in seeking efficiency, but cautioned against his tendency to allow big innings.

“I think if you look back at Kenta the last few years, at times he’s been victim to the big inning,” Roberts said. “If there’s some trouble but you get out of it -- one run, two runs -- that allows you to keep pitching deeper into a game, keep your team in the game.”

Afterward, looking back on the Cardinals' three-run sixth, Roberts said, “I think that there was some soft contact but they got some big hits and [Maeda] just couldn’t limit the damage tonight.”

The decisive blow was a two-run homer by Molina that was struck from a first-pitch Maeda slider. Both Roberts and Maeda (through a translator) concluded that Molina was anticipating the slider, which Roberts said was hung. Maeda said the slider “wasn’t a quality first pitch.”