ST. LOUIS -- No holy grail under the Arch, either.

Presented with their second chance this week to achieve .500, the Pirates got a ragged start from Paul Maholm and mustered little offensively against St. Louis' Todd Wellemeyer in a 5-1 loss to the Cardinals tonight at Busch Stadium.

Their record: 19-21.

In the same situation Monday at home, they fell with an equivalent thud, 8-1, to the Atlanta Braves.

A victory would have marked the latest point in a season for .500 since June 11, 2005.

Not that anyone directly involved seemed to notice much ...

"That's not my goal," manager John Russell said beforehand. "If you pick .500 as a goal, where do you go from there? We've never looked at .500 as where we want to be."

It does come up, though.

"We try to tell the players: Don't look at .500. Look beyond .500. We're trying to stay focused on what we need to do each day, and we've done a good job of that all year."

He laughed.

"I don't think .500 is anything we'll pop a champagne bottle over."

For the most part, the players have made little fuss about any aspect of their recent resurgence.

Or, as first baseman Adam LaRoche put it when asked about .500, "What's our record?"

He was serious.

"We're just looking at playing well and continuing to win. That's our focus. Not numbers. Those will take care of themselves."

Maholm allowed a season-high 14 baserunners -- 11 hits and three walks -- in his six innings, and never went 1-2-3 through any. That he escaped with just four runs on his line was the lone bright spot.

His home-road disparity widened in the process: He is 4-0 with a 2.74 ERA at PNC Park, 0-4 with an 8.58 ERA everywhere else. The most recent road victory came Aug. 23 of last year.

Wellemeyer, in dramatic contrast, was in total control: He allowed two singles in his seven-plus innings, and the only run charged to him came after his exit. He struck out five, relentlessly pounding the zone with fastball after fastball, in improving to 4-1.

LaRoche nearly gave the Pirates a head start in the second, but his bid for a home run to center was foiled by Rick Ankiel's outstanding leaping grab atop the fence.

St. Louis scored once in each of its next two innings to go ahead, 2-0, that production minimal considering the four hits and two walks by Maholm.

And the Cardinals doubled that lead in a chaotic sixth.

Brendan Ryan opened with an infield single, and Brian Barton's painfully slow bouncer somehow found its way into center field. It looked as if Maholm could have reached up for it but decided against it, and it looked as if shortstop Luis Rivas or second baseman Freddy Sanchez could have kept it in the infield if either had been more aggressive.

Next, Ankiel popped high to shallow left, and Rivas, the only one with a realistic play, stopped and allowed it to fall.

Bases loaded.

Sacrifice flies by Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick brought two runs when there could have been four outs.

The Pirates avoided being blanked for the first time by scoring in the seventh.

Jose Bautista's single chased Wellemeyer at 108 pitches, and follow-up singles by Sanchez and Nate McLouth pushed Bautista across. With those two aboard, Jason Bay just missed tying the score with a flyout to the track in left.

Newcomer Marino Salas gave up a run on three St. Louis singles in the eighth.

Also squandered on this night, by the way, was a chance to go to Chicago with a chance to play for first place over the weekend. The Cubs moved back to five games ahead.

Ian Snell pitches the rubber match against the Cardinals tomorrow afternoon.