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Although Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore felt “better physically” following his start Wednesday against the Blue Jays compared to the outing he had less than a week prior, how his afternoon unfolded against Toronto left the left-hander with some dissatisfaction.

After getting through two scoreless innings against the Blue Jays as his offense built a 2-0 lead, Liberatore allowed two runs apiece in the third and fourth innings. A solo home run in the fifth inning added a fifth run to Liberatore’s pitching line and put the Cardinals behind by three runs in a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays that sealed a sweep by Toronto.

“That’s a really good lineup, and they’re swinging the bat really well right now. It’s disappointing that we jumped out to a two-run lead and I couldn’t keep us in that game,” said Liberatore, who completed five innings and had his ERA rise to 3.93 with the five runs (three earned) allowed.

The outing marked the third consecutive start where Liberatore failed to reach six innings after he had done so in eight of his first 10 outings of 2025.

Following a start last Thursday vs. the Royals during which he experienced dips with his velocity and exited alongside a team trainer because of “fatigue-related issues,” Liberatore’s fastball touched 95.6 mph and averaged 93.8 mph vs. Toronto, per Statcast.

While his fastball average remained slightly below its season average, it dipped to a low of 91.3 mph and touched 92.8 mph on his 90th pitch in the series finale. When he faced the Royals less than a week from Wednesday, Liberatore’s fastball dropped to a low of 89.5 mph before leaving the game on 71 pitches.

“He (Liberatore) felt much better. That’s a plus,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Him coming out of this outing feeling positive ... from just physically getting through that outing — we’re in a good spot. That was kind of one of the main points in making sure that, from a health standpoint, we can check that box.”

The two runs Liberatore allowed in the third inning when the top of the Blue Jays lineup faced him for a second time washed away the lead the Cardinals received on hits from Willson Contreras and Yohel Pozo. Contreras delivered an RBI single in the first inning, and Pozo pulled a fly ball to left field for a solo home run that marked his second of the season since being called up on April 7.

Liberatore notched two strikeouts and worked around two hits in his first two innings before a two-base error charged to Nolan Gorman opened the third inning for Toronto.

A softly hit grounder that dribbled up the middle by Tyler Heineman leaked into center field when Gorman had it roll by his glove as he rounded the second base bag in an attempt to field it and make a throw.

What followed was not quite as soft.

A single by Bo Bichette with a 111.9 mph exit velocity in the next at-bat scored Heineman and represented the hardest-hit ball Liberatore allowed in his start. Alejandro Kirk followed with a single down the left field line on a ball that jumped off his bat at 107.6 mph and advanced Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to third base. George Springer’s sacrifice fly that had a 106.6 mph exit velocity was deep enough to score Guerrero to tie the game.

In the next inning, Bichette produced a sacrifice fly that gave the Blue Jays a lead. Guerrero’s hard-hit single later that inning and Ernie Clement’s homer padded it, leaving the Cardinals with a third consecutive loss after a blown save resulted in a 5-4 loss on Monday and late rally on Tuesday ended in a 10-9 defeat.

“We knew this would be a tough one going into it,” Marmol said of the matchup vs. a high-contact Blue Jays team. “That’s why you want to steal that first one. That one hurt. We were able to bring up the tying run in both the other games. But we knew this series, more than any other series, was going to give us some trouble.

“Guys battled their (butts) off, and at the end of the day, they out-executed us. You look at their at-bats and they just did a really nice job of putting the ball in play and scoring runs. They collected hits. That’s what they’ve done for a while now, and they did it well against us. They beat us all three games.”

In an attempt to try and limit the Blue Jays bats on Wednesday, Liberatore utilized his curveball for 21 of his 90 pitches — the bulk of which came when the base paths were busy in the third and fourth innings.

That breaking pitch got five whiffs on 11 swings and landed for called strikes on five occasions.

On three occasions, a first pitch strike on the curveball was followed by a run-producing swing on the very next pitch.

Springer whiffed on a curveball to begin his at-bat in the third before driving a cutter to center field for his sacrifice fly. Behind 0-1 after whiffing at the lefty’s curveball, Guerrero pulled an 0-1 cutter to left field for his RBI single in the fourth. And in the fifth, Clement took a curveball for a strike, then hit a 93.2 mph fastball for a homer.

On two occasions, during Bichette’s 111.9 mph single and Heineman’s roller that led to Gorman’s error, the curveball usage resulted in a runner reaching base. When he faced Liberatore in the third inning, Bichette fouled off a 2-2 curveball before hitting the third curveball he saw in the at-bat for a single that produced the Blue Jays’ first run.

“I had good command of it today,” Liberatore said of his curveball. “I got a few swing and misses on it, (but) just not when I needed the swinging misses.”