ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals made the most of their one hit through seven innings by using it to produce two runs and a lead, but in the end that was just it.

They had one hit going into the eighth inning.

Cincinnati starter Rhett Lowder flummoxed the Cardinals through his five innings, and what the Cardinals weren’t able to do against him and an assortment of relievers left them exposed for the rally that inevitably arrived from a familiar source. Eugenio Suarez cracked a two-run homer that traveled an estimated 435 feet and shattered the Cardinals’ lead in the seventh inning. Suarez’s homer sent the Reds toward a 4-2 victory Friday night at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals' listing lineup finished with two hits.

The offense has gone AWOL.

The Cardinals lost for the seventh time in nine games and head to the ballpark on Saturday afternoon set to wear their victory blues for the first time and perched on the brink of sinking to .500.

Suarez’s homer came too late to reward Lowder but in plenty of time for the Reds’ bullpen to complete four scoreless innings. Emilio Pagan pitched a perfect ninth and struck out the final two batters to secure his 10th save.

For the first seven innings of the game, the Cardinals had more runs (two) than they had hits (one), and that was the issue. Blaze Jordan’s two-out, two-strike double in the fifth flipped the game on the Reds and gave the Cardinals the lead.

They did not get another hit until the eighth.

That lefty them vulnerable to the damage a single swing could do, and Suarez obliged.

The slugging third baseman drilled a two-out, two-run homer in the seventh inning to give the Cardinals’ bullpen another late-game leak. They misplaced leads in the late innings on back-to-back days this past weekend in Arizona and Anaheim, California, and did so ago for a third time in six days Friday.

Suarez’s homer off George Soriano (3-3) was the 32nd of his career to take a lead back for his team. Since his major-league debut in 2014, Suarez now leads the majors in go-ahead homers, vaulting ahead of Nolan Arenado’s 31 with the homer Friday at Busch.

Suarez’s homer gave the Reds a 3-2 edge they took into the ninth and then increased on rookie Sal Stewart’s RBI single. Stewart’s single off Soriano back in the seventh set up the inning and he scored on Suarez’s homer.

If this is it, May finishes well

In what could be his final start for the Cardinals as they consider what offers the trade deadline brings for the starter and pending free agent, Dustin May steadied himself and his results after what he called a “pretty bad” month.

The right-hander allowed one run through six innings and scattered seven hits.

He helped unplug several Reds innings with a mix of strikeouts and one timely catch on his own. Cincinnati greeted him in the sixth inning with back-to-back singles. When Spencer Steer inexplicably tried to bunt his teammates into scoring position, the Reds outfielder instead popped the ball up. May scampered from the mound to make the catch, and that out proved vital. May hit the next batter with a 0-2 sweeper to load the bases before getting a fly out to end the threat.

The Reds marooned three runners in the sixth, eighth over May’s final four innings.

A major part of their struggles with runners on base against May was the variety of looks the right-hander gave them. May landed six different pitches in his start and established each of them quickly. By the end of the fourth inning, May had six strikeouts. Five of them were swinging strikeouts, and each of those five ended with a different type of pitch. He struck out Suarez with an 97.7-mph sinker, struck another Red with a cutter, and by the end of his outing had finished two of his eight strikeouts with a cutter.

In the third inning, May challenged Elly De La Cruz with a 97-mph sinker that the shortstop fouled back. May got De La Cruz to watch a 97.4-mph four-seam fastball for a called strike 2.

Then May dropped the curve on De La Cruz and the switch-hitter swung awkwardly at the change of speed to a whiff on a the 85.6-mph breaker.

That strikeout helped him escape another inning with two runners on.

Through five innings, Cincinnati was 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position against May, and three of those at-bats were strikeouts. In his first quality start since his complete-game shutout on June 15, May got 14 swings and misses.

Who needs a hit? (Cards do)

There was a moment in the fifth inning when the Cardinals had yet to collect their first hit of th game — and also seemed poised to score a run without one anyway.

Back from a day off and batting in the cleanup spot for the first time this season, Ivan Herrera picked up where he’s spent so much of the season: being plunked by pitches. Herrera took a bruiser off his left arm, close to the elbow, from Lowder. An inning after the Cardinals snapped Lowder’s perfect start to the game, Herrera’s 25th hit by pitch of the season gave them their second baserunner.

He stole second to be the first Cardinal safely in scoring position.

And Herrera then took third on a flyout to left.

Three batters into fifth inning and the Cardinals were still looking for their first hit against Lowder but had a runner at third. A fly ball likely would have scored Herrera and tied the game without needing a hit.

What the Cardinals first got was a groundout that froze Herrera at third.

Nathan Church walked to extend the inning.

And then came the hit.

Jordan broke through against Lowder with a liner to left-center field for a double. Church dashed from first so that he could score on the play and give Jordan two RBIs and the Cardinals their first lead. Two outs into the fifth inning, and the Cardinals had their first hit of the game — and got two runs on the two-out, two-strike, two-base rip from Jordan.

As they reached the eighth inning, it was still their only hit.

Fortunate bounce

The rally that could have been for the Reds took a fortunate hop in the Cardinals’ direction.

In the fourth inning, Cincinnati peppered May with a leadoff single and a walk bookended around two outs. With two outs and two on, catcher Tyler Stephenson lofted a ball toward the warning track in front of the Cardinals’ bullpen. Because there were two outs, the runner at first base, Steer, bolted on contact. He had plenty of time to score from first on Stephenson’s double for a 2-0 lead.

There was just one issue.

The ball bounded into the Cardinals’ bullpen for a rulebook double that forced Steer back to third base and left Stephenson with only one RBI and the Reds with only a 1-0 lead.

May got a groundout from the next batter to end the inning and strand two Reds in scoring position. The ball going out of play loomed bigger when Cincinnati failed to take advantage of the other scoring chances against May and the Cardinals scored twice to overtake the Reds — not tie them — in the fifth inning.

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