For weeks, as his Cardinals gorged on their own nourishing pitching and a buffet of losing teams, manager Tony La Russa warned of the "fragile" nature of winning.

He no longer needs to speak hypothetically.

The Florida Marlins ducked a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning to preserve ace Josh Johnson's stellar work in a 5-2 victory over the Cardinals on Wednesday at Busch Stadium. After his division-leading club's second consecutive series loss, La Russa is no longer a manager crying wolf. His alerts have sprung to life.

The Cardinals have lost three games on the home stand by one run, and they've been strong-armed by quality pitching. Wednesday's loss was the Cardinals' fifth in six games, and it left their division lead at 8 1/2 games with the chasing Chicago Cubs arriving Friday.

"It's a really rough spot for us," said starter Joel Piņeiro, who took the loss after allowing four runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings. "Hopefully this day off (today) relaxes us, clears our head because we have our work cut out for us. … It's going to be important these last two weeks.

"It's going to tell everything that can happen."

The Cardinals reached this three-series home stand fat with 31 wins in their previous 40 games. But only seven of those games came against teams with a winning record, and in their first 16 series after the All-Star break, only four pitted them against a winning team. Entering this nine-game home stand, which concludes with the final series against the rival Cubs, La Russa cited the ability of the opponents' pitchers.

They didn't disappoint.

Starting with Atlanta's Jair Jurrjens' eight shutout innings Friday and finishing with Johnson's six innings Wednesday, the Cardinals managed just eight runs off the starters in the five losses. Those five starters combined for a 2.12 ERA in 34 innings.

"Good pitching stops good hitting," La Russa said. "And when you're facing it, then you've got to scramble and try to manufacture and all that stuff. But I really like this club. We have a really good club. That's what I think. … I'm not concerned at all."

As proof, La Russa pointed to Wednesday's multiple misses.

The Cardinals put at least one runner in scoring position in seven of nine innings, and in every inning against Johnson the Cardinals got at least one hit. In the first, Johnson struck out Matt Holliday and got a flyout from Colby Rasmus to strand two runners. In the fourth and fifth, the strapping 6-foot-7 righthander pitched around leadoff singles. The Cardinals were 0 for seven against Johnson (15-4) with runners in scoring position. until Julio Lugo's RBI single in the sixth cracked the righty's shutout.

Lugo's hit was the Cardinals' only hit with a runner at second or third, and they finished the game one for 13. They have one hit in their past 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

"We didn't put anything together," said hitting coach Hal McRae. "I think two things: One, we're chasing a bit and we're not being patient enough. And, two, we haven't bunched any hits. I think if we stop chasing, we'll start bunching."

Florida gave the Cardinals' offense a chance to bunch a bit in the ninth when Marlins closer Leo Nunez hit both Ryan Ludwick and Albert Pujols in back-to-back plate appearances. Nunez grazing Ludwick's left hand with a fastball loaded the bases, and his popping Pujols in the back drove in the second run. The hit batters stoked a one-out rally and brought the winning run to the plate in Holliday.

Nunez got Holliday, 0 for four with runners in scoring position Wednesday, to chop into a double play.

"We're not trying to hit anybody, obviously, in that situation," Marlins catcher John Baker said. "We're not trying to hit Ryan Ludwick to get to Albert Pujols with the bases loaded up by four. Common sense says that's not what you want to do."

By the time the Marlins had their first extra-base hit — Dan Uggla's double in the eighth — they already had a 4-1 lead built on 10 singles. Five of the first seven batters of the game singled against Piņeiro (14-11) and the Cardinals were swiftly down 3-0. In the second inning, three more Marlins reached base and La Russa scanned his bullpen report to figure out how to patch together seven-plus innings of relief.

Piņeiro, with plenty of help from his defense, steadied his start and was able to hold the Marlins to one run in a nettlesome second and no runs for the rest of his 5 1/3 innings. The game was decided in his first couple of innings, as Florida did against a good pitcher what the Cardinals didn't.

Bunch hits.

The loss for Piņeiro meant that for the first time since the last week of June, the Cardinals' trio of exceptional starters — Piņeiro and Cy Young contenders Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter — lost a game in the same week. Piņeiro and Wainwright combined to allow seven runs in their 19 1/3 innings (3.26 ERA) so far on the home stand.

They are a combined 0-3, starved for run support.

"It's human nature when you get some kind of lead to lose some urgency," La Russa said. "This club comes to play with it, to play with urgency. That's a sign of good attitude, good toughness, and when you've got good talent, good attitude and good toughness, that means we're a good club."