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DENVER — With the trade deadline arriving at the end of this month, a Cardinals executive advertised how the front office would use the games coming out of the All-Star break to inform the club’s plans on whether it sold players at the deadline or added around the edges of the roster.

The Cardinals executives, in a “transition” year, were leaning toward a sell months in the making but also open to a signal from the results.

They sure got it.

The Cardinals tumble back to sea level after a disastrous road trip at an even worse time. At a point in the season that the break should allow a team to rest and revive, the Cardinals started the back stretch by being swept in Arizona and then losing a series to the historically bad Colorado Rockies with a 6-0 loss Wednesday afternoon at Coors Field. And they did so in historically bad fashion.

“Worst game we’ve played all year,” manager Oliver Marmol said.

The Rockies (26-76) had gone 220 consecutive games without a shutout and almost two years without a shutout at Coors Field. That was the longest active streak and one of the longest ever in modern baseball. The previous time Colorado blanked an opponent anywhere was May 15, 2024. The Cardinals are the first opponent to leave Coors Field without scoring a run since July 30, 2023.

In 32 years of visiting Denver, the Cardinals had been shutout only three times.

For perspective, these same Cardinals were shutout on three consecutive days in Pittsburgh just three weeks ago.

The Rockies won their fourth series of the season in their 102nd game.

As they did in all five losses on the six-game road trip, the Cardinals (52-51) fell behind early Wednesday. They mustered nothing in response. The three batters due up in the ninth inning went down in order to Rockies reliever Tyler Kinley, who secured the notable shutout after a strong start from Tanner Gordon. Kinley struck out Jordan Walker to finish the win.

The Rockies seized a 4-0 lead in the second inning to put the Cardinals on their heels. Andre Pallante (5-7) allowed five singles and one walk in the inning that essentially decided the game before it was an hour old.

On Monday, John Mozeliak described a front office leaning toward selling at the deadline, and as the Cardinals head home to face San Diego, this is a shove in the standings for a team already fielding interest for its pending free agents.

Balls in play lead to dismay

If the Cardinals wanted to isolate an inning that illustrates what can happen to a contact-oriented pitching staff when things go sideways, consider the second inning Wednesday at Coors Field.

What began with a leadoff walk unraveled into a four-run inning.

There wasn’t an extra-base hit.

There were only few well-struck hits.

Several of the singles that brought home runs were ground balls.

The regression to the mean has been just that for Cardinals starters — mean.

Pallante, one of the game’s top ground-ball-getters, did just that. He walked Ryan McMahon to invite trouble and then saw back-to-back singles from Austin Nolan and Kyle Farmer produce the game’s first run. He got a ground ball from No. 9 hitter Adael Amador, and it was even a slow roller — but it found a seam between third baseman Nolan Arenado and shortstop Masyn Winn to skip all the way to left field.

Instead of a potential double play, that hopper brought home a run. Instead of ending the inning, that hopper extended it — and led to more.

Tyler Freeman and Mickey Moniak followed with RBI singles to extend the Rockies’ lead to 4-0. Those singles were also soft hits that were just out of reach of a fielder.

Pallante eventually got a ground ball at a teammate, and the Cardinals turned the inning-ending double play. But all the grounders that go through produced five singles, four runs and a total of six base runners in the inning. Pallante finished his start with seven ground outs and five strikeouts. But the cluster of hits where his teammates weren’t in the second inning contributed to his third consecutive start with at least five earned runs allowed.

The lineup produced zero runs while Pallante was in the game.

Early speed bumps on road

In a callback to the troubles the Cardinals had in 2023 on their highway to a losing season — the only losing season of the previous 17 years — this road trip has been defined by early deficits.

The four-run pothole created by all those singles in the second came a day after the Rockies took a 6-0 lead after three innings.

On the road trip, the Cardinals have been outscored 20 to 1 in the first three innings.

“You set the tone with starting pitching,” manager Oliver Marmol said before the first game of the series in Colorado.

Michael McGreevy did on Monday with seven solid innings.

But in the two games that followed, Cardinals starters Pallante and Erick Fedde combined to allow 11 runs in eight innings. The Rockies rapped 15 hits against the two right-handers in those games. Fedde was designated for assignment before Wednesday’s game and will be available to other teams via trade, on waivers or to sign after the Cardinals pay his remaining salary and release him. Colorado never trailed in Tuesday’s game after taking the big early lead and took a hearty five-run lead into the final four innings of Wednesday’s game.

Those games followed the disaster in the desert when the Cardinals trailed 5-1 after three innings of Friday’s game, 6-0 after three on Saturday and 5-0 after three on Sunday.

Lineup fizzles despite gifts

Rockies starter Gordon, a right-hander out of Champaign, Illinois, making his fourth big league start of the season, walked two of the first three batters he faced.

In a scoreless game, the Cardinals had the middle of their order up, two runners on, and once immediate chance to seize a grip on the game.

They got nothing.

Willson Contreras struck out and Arenado grounded out to give Gordon a reprieve.

The right-hander allowed two singles in the second inning, but those hits also went nowhere toward the score due to a ground out and a excellent catch in shallow center by Rockies second baseman Amador.

So it went all game for the Cardinals.

Gordon gave them another walk in the third inning, and the next two hitters failed to advance their teammate. By the time Gordon finished his six scoreless innings, the Cardinals were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

Opportunities fizzled almost as soon as they arrived. Contreras doubled with one out in the sixth inning. He was stranded.

The Cardinals got the top of the order up to open the eighth inning, and Ivan Herrera roped a single up the middle with one out. From there, the inning went where so many of the previous ones did and the road trip seemed to be going.

Nowhere.