ST. LOUIS -- Pitching, defense and even the offense all sputtered at once for the Cardinals in a 12-7 loss to the Brewers at sweltering Busch Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

Jason Marquis muddled through four-plus innings for the loss, allowing seven runs on nine hits. Thanks to a pair of errors, four of Marquis' runs were unearned, but it was not a memorable afternoon for the right-hander.

Those two errors, one by sure-handed Abraham Nunez and one by Gold Glover Scott Rolen, plus at least one other miscue that was not officially an error, canceled out some good work on defense by St. Louis. The Redbirds turned five double plays, helping short-circuit a number of Brewers rallies.

On offense, the Cards made it look respectable late, but they missed some important chances before the game got out of hand. Albert Pujols had another huge day, but a lineup missing five regulars couldn't do much to support Pujols until after he was removed from the game.

"It wasn't a lot of fun early, then we had a middle chance, and then the game got away," said manager Tony La Russa. "I just give credit to the Brewers -- they did much more than we did. But we played till the end."

Marquis had notched four consecutive quality starts before Thursday, but after rolling with his sinking two-seam fastball in recent games, he got away from that pitch against Milwaukee.

The Brewers jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first three innings, entirely as a result of unearned runs. Rolen's throwing error on a potential play at the plate allowed Rickie Weeks to score the first run. Lyle Overbay took second on the play, and Carlos Lee singled the first baseman home to make it 2-0.

In the third, two miscues by Nunez set the stage for a two-run inning. Nunez bounced a throw on Brady Clark's leadoff grounder, sending Clark all the way to second. After Weeks struck out, Overbay hit a chopper to Nunez, who threw home. The speedy Clark scored easily, and the Cardinals did not record an out on the play.

"I threw that one ball away, and with the high chopper, I was committed to go to the plate," Nunez said. "That was a bad decision. I should have just gone to first. I knew who was at third -- if it had been Lee or someone, I would have had a play."

La Russa took issue with the notion that his team struggled on defense, however.

"There were a couple plays," he said. "Scott hurried a throw and the ball was up, and Abe missed that one play. ... But I'm watching that game and the defense was turning double plays left and right. Our defense played today."

The Cards closed to within 5-3 in the fourth, but Milwaukee pulled away against Marquis and Brad Thompson in the next half-inning. The first three batters of the inning reached against Marquis before he was lifted for Thompson. The rookie right-hander induced a double play that brought home a run before serving up a solo shot to Russell Branyan.

That made it 8-3, and the Cards were never closer than four runs again.

"It was kind of a strange game from the get-go," said catcher Mike Mahoney. "As the game went on, they got a few bloop hits, a few balls through the hole. It was just one of those things. We couldn't get them to stop hitting there for a couple innings in a row. Then they got a big hit."

Pujols remained torrid for St. Louis, with three hits, an RBI and a run scored. But he was twice stranded in scoring position, as the Cardinals left nine runners on base. Pujols, Rolen and Mark Grudzielanek were the only regulars in the lineup for St. Louis, as a combination of injuries and scheduled days off left the National League's most feared lineup with a number of less well-known names.