ST. LOUIS -- Todd Wellemeyer deserved better. From his offense, his defense, his bullpen and maybe even from his manager.

Wellemeyer kept a sluggish Cardinals team in the game for six innings Tuesday night before succumbing in the seventh, as St. Louis was thrashed by the Brewers, 12-0, at Busch Stadium. In their biggest game of the year to date, the Cards gave perhaps their worst showing.

The defeat dealt a serious blow to the Redbirds' playoff hopes, as they now trail Wild Card-leading Milwaukee by 4 1/2 games with only one remaining head-to-head meeting. The Mets are now tied with the Cardinals in the Wild Card race.

"They played better," said Troy Glaus. "The score was indicative of that. Top to bottom, all facets, they just played better than we did."

Wellemeyer was the lone bright spot until he was asked to give one more inning -- and didn't have it in him. Through six innings he was charged with three runs, two earned, and perhaps only one deserved -- thanks to some well-placed bloops and defensive follies.

The Cardinals' offense, meanwhile, flubbed numerous chances early against Ben Sheets, then simply went to sleep over the final five innings. And long after the outcome seemed secure, the Brewers tacked on seven runs against the St. Louis bullpen in the ninth inning. With the limited exception of the starting pitcher, no facet of this contending team played well Tuesday.

"Overall, they were better than we were today," said manager Tony La Russa. "Everything that had to happen didn't happen for us, and it did happen for them."

The first inning told the story of the night in a microcosm. In the top half of the inning, Milwaukee used three bloop singles to score a run. Wellemeyer escaped with the bases loaded and kept it 1-0, but he had to work extremely hard.

In the bottom of the first, St. Louis put men on first and second with one out and the middle of the order coming to the plate. But Rick Ankiel struck out and Glaus flied out to center, ending the threat.

J.J. Hardy's line drive into the corner in left caromed away from Ankiel in the third and rolled until Hardy had a triple. Wellemeyer retired the next three batters in order, but he couldn't prevent Hardy from scoring the second run. The Cards got a triple of their own in the bottom of the same inning, followed by a one-out walk, but Albert Pujols and Ankiel couldn't get even one run home.

Finally, in the fourth, Wellemeyer struck out and Adam Kennedy flied out with runners on the corners. Three chances in four innings, and the Cards did nothing with them.

Then it was quiet time. St. Louis managed only two more baserunners over the final five innings, a pair of singles against the Milwaukee bullpen.

"We were able to put a little pressure on [Sheets], but he was able to make the pitch when he needed to make it," Glaus said.

Wellemeyer did the same in the fifth, and it still wasn't good enough. After two walks and two strikeouts, he got a ground ball from Corey Hart. Pujols chose to make the difficult throw to Aaron Miles covering at second -- rather than to Wellemeyer at first -- and the ball skipped away, bringing home the third Brewers run.

"Albert didn't give him a great throw," La Russa said. "But, I think when you look at Hart going and Wellemeyer trying to cover, what was the tougher throw? I think probably trying to hit Wellemeyer on the run."

Neither Ankiel nor Pujols stopped to speak to the assemblage of reporters after the game.

The three runs were enough, it turned out, but they weren't all. Wellemeyer had thrown 101 pitches through six innings, but La Russa asked for a seventh frame from the right-hander, who has yet to establish a great deal of endurance as a big league starting pitcher.

It didn't work. Wellemeyer permitted a single to Hardy, then missed with a pitch over the plate to Ryan Braun, and it was 5-0.

"The pitch to Braun just came back over the plate," Wellemeyer said. "It was inside and it came back over the middle. ... If you're trying to throw it on the right side of the plate, it means my elbow probably dropped a little bit, so I was probably a little tired."

The Cardinals have now lost seven straight games to the Brewers.