Jakubauskas talks about his outing

One more note on the starters: They're 3-8 with a 5.99 ERA and have failed to complete seven innings in the last 16 games since Jake Arrieta did it on June 10. Chris Jakubauskas fell to 2-1 with a 5.68 ERA after allowing five runs and seven hits in five innings. He noted that the Cardinals were "a little bit more aggressive." They also were four runs better.

"I noticed it in the first inning," he said. "Leadoff batter is swinging at the first pitch and you have (Matt) Holliday swinging at the first pitch. It was a little interesting. Then second, third inning they started getting fastballs away and then a double to left. It was kind of like, OK, start mixing in the cutter. And they weren't on everything every first pitch the rest of the way, but I left four or five pitches up, one of them the (Colby) Rasmus homer. If you put the ball down in the zone, it's a little bit different outcome." Give Rasmus credit? "No, that's all me," Jakubauskas said. "He's a big league hitter, they don't miss pitches right down the middle. The two-seamer didn't do anything again. It was a bad pitch." Jakubauskas couldn't match Chris Carpenter, who threw 132 pitches on his way to a complete-game victory "Yeah, if you catch him on a good day, like we did today, he is tough to beat," Jakubauskas said. "When you're down five, it's a little tough. I put us in a hole again, again with the five innings, and at some point that's got to stop. And that's on me. You can't go out and battle every start like I've been doing. One of these times, it's got to be going smooth. It can't be smooth, battle, battle, battle. It's got to be more smooth than battle. Right now, I'm going through a battle. We'll get back on the mound in a few days, work some kinks out in the bullpen and we'll get back out there. "You can't throw the ball down the middle of the plate. Flat out. That's the main thing with me. If I can hit the corners, I'm good to go. I can spot up. But if you miss over the plate, you get hurt. "I was upset with the homer, but two runs, I was like, 'OK, make some pitches. Get out of this and get into the sixth with a two-run (deficit).' But it didn't work out that way. If you can keep it at two, with our offense you never know. You can have a blast, a double, a blast and all of the sudden we're up two. So two runs (down) isn't going to get me down too much. I can still keep us in the game. But when it starts to get to five, you don't want to press, but it starts to be 'OK, I've really got to narrow it down and start making quality pitches to keep it (there) and let our guys get back in it.'"