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Since its grass took root in downtown ӣ����Ƶ, the Cardinals’ current ballpark has favored pitchers, and while buildings have appeared and climbed around it, the club has, with few exceptions, leaned into Busch Stadium III’s personality by emphasizing defense and pitching that puts that defense to work.

The question has been what kind of offense, outside of one with a big-stick MVP as its tentpole, could consistently thrive and take advantage of their home’s dimension.

The Cardinals may have found an answer.

“Hits,” as manager Oliver Marmol said, bluntly.

By the boatload.

The exception that proves the rule came Sunday.

A persistent, hit-stringing offense that stormed back for a walk-off win Saturday went ice cold in Sunday’s heat during a 4-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The Cardinals mixed in some frozen ropes hit right at fielders, but otherwise, Andrew Abbott stifled them for seven innings. The Cardinals went without a hit after the second inning, and the Reds retired 24 of the final 25 batters they faced.

This is how a team built to win at Busch loses at Busch.

The loss ended the Cardinals’ winning streak at five games, kept them from a second consecutive series sweep and helped to prove, in its absence, what kind of offense they’ve relied on to win and win often at home.

“I think we’re playing to our strengths,” Marmol said. “We don’t hit a ton of homers, and our production has mostly been higher at Busch than on the road. Part of it is we do have the mentality of hit collection. That doesn’t mean we won’t hit homers or doubles, but we do have to play to our strengths and we have guys who can hit. So selling out for one thing and being vulnerable to the other parts of the game has hurt us at times.

“That hasn’t been the case this year.”

Abbott (7-1) arrived in Sunday’s series finale with 1.84 ERA, set to face a team that has the third-highest on-base percentage at home (.343) and fourth-highest batting average (.272) there, too. That offsets a below-average slugging percentage both at home (.408) and overall (.391). It also illustrates how the Cardinals (42-36) have the fifth-best record at home in the National League as they welcome Monday the division-leading Cubs (46-31) for the first series of this season between the archrivals.

For overall offense, Busch Stadium has played neutral this season, but for power, it’s 12% below league average. Only four ballparks are less accommodating to home runs. The Cardinals, as a lineup, do not have many home run hitters or hit many homers. So a ballpark that isn’t welcoming for home runs hosts a lineup that doesn’t hit them — but counters by getting a steady drumbeat of hits.

Like they did to rally Saturday.

Like they didn’t at all Sunday.

“Our ballpark has a lot of hits in it,” Alec Burleson said.

Just not soaring out of it.

“You rarely find a game where it’s hitter-friendly here,” said starting pitcher Miles Mikolas. “The pop flies don’t really carry here. You don’t get a lot of cheap ones, sneaking them down the line or dropping them in the basket like at Wrigley. Or Cincy plays a little short. (Milwaukee) is fairer. If you get it, it’s going to go. Here, you just don’t know. ... I feel like you’ve got to keep the pressure on because it’s not necessarily a place like Wrigley or Cincinnati with the wind blowing out and a couple of bloops and the ball is flying. Keeping the pressure on. Keeping the ball in play.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say small ball,” he continued. “But you definitely can’t really sit around and wait for a home run because it doesn’t happen as often as you’d like.”

It’s not small ball. It’s bulk ball.

It’s hits by the bunch.

Their offense accumulates more than it erupts.

“We’re not going to slug teams to death, so to speak,” Burleson said.

Cincinnati took an early lead with a solo homer off Mikolas (4-5) by Matt McLain, the second hitter of the ballgame. The Cardinals answered a lead created with one swing by sandwiching two singles around an error. Nolan Arenado’s single to right field led off the second, an error got him into scoring position and Yohel Pozo poked an RBI single to tie the game. Pozo delivered Saturday’s walk-off run, giving him the last RBI one day and the only RBI the next.

The Reds pulled away with back-to-back doubles against Mikolas in the right-hander’s fifth and final inning. Cincinnati added a run after a leadoff double in the sixth against reliever Kyle Leahy.

After Pozo’s game-tying single, Abbott retired 18 consecutive Cardinals. He mixed movement — a fading change-up, a veering slider, and a dropping curveball — all within a tight range of velocity. He also had ample help from his defense.

The Cardinals had seven ball put in play with an expected batting average of .500 or better. They went 1 for 7 on those balls in play.

Seven of the game’s balls that left the bat at 95 mph or faster came from the Cardinals, and only one produced a hit: Arenado’s rally-sparking single. Burleson hit two balls in the air at 99.6 mph and 99.9 mph, and both were caught. He had another ball lifted at 69.8 mph with an expected batting average of .830. It was caught. Brendan Donovan lined a ball at the first baseman and launched a ball to the track. Both were outs.

The hits did not collect.

“I think that’s what makes us good, right there,” Donovan said. “There are not a lot of homers for us today. Unfortunately, that’s just how it is. But guys do a really good job of training for that, of practicing their shots in the cage. I think that’s what makes us hard to play. We have a combination of a good lineup and a bunch of guys who are well-rounded. I think that’s what makes us hard to beat here at home. To win in this ballpark, you have to be very situationally aware. You need good bat-to-ball skills to have a plan, not just trying to out-slug. Where do I want it pitched, where do I want to hit it, that kind of thing.”

The Cardinals won six of their previous seven games with that “kind of thing.” They averaged almost 10 hits per game in those wins, and of their 59 hits, only 10 were homers. They generated runs with rallies, batting .281 with runners in scoring position.

A solo homer tied Saturday’s game and would have changed Sunday’s, but it was four consecutive singles that rallied them even to that point Saturday. That didn’t manifest Sunday.

“Everything we put in play led to landing in somebody’s glove,” Marmol said. “We couldn’t string anything together.”

That’s the crux of it. Winning at Busch, as the Cardinals have 24 times in 39 games, comes down to a radio tagline: play the hits.

What they are at their best was underscored Sunday by what they weren’t.

“I think we know who we are as an offense,” Burleson said. “Nobody is going to go home upset if they went 2 for 4 with two singles. As long as we collect our hits, string them together, we’ll score runs, and that’s going to give us success. That’s who we are.”