CHICAGO -- The St. Louis Cardinals hitters did everything they were supposed to do. Too bad their pitchers couldn't hold up their end of the bargain.

Despite knocking Cy Young contender Jake Arrieta out of the game in the sixth inning, the Cardinals still found a way to lose, falling 8-6 to the Chicago Cubs in Game 3 of the NLDS.

On an evening when 20-mph winds were blowing out toward Lake Michigan, St. Louis hurlers set a postseason record by serving up six gopher balls, including back-to-back shots by Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo during a three-run fifth inning that put the Cubs on top for good.

Starter Michael Wacha, an All-Star who came into the game with a 6.86 ERA against Chicago this season, allowed four runs on six hits -- including three homers -- before getting yanked with one away in the fifth. He's now given up seven bombs in his last 13 2/3 innings against Chicago, and 10 in his last 28 1/3 innings overall.

Wacha's rocky outing, combined with the failures of a bullpen that allowed seven hits and three more longballs after his departure, led to a seemingly inconceivable loss.

The four runs that St. Louis scored against Arrieta -- who came into the game having tossed 34 consecutive scoreless innings -- were as many as the Cubs' ace had allowed in his previous 13 starts combined. The 5 2/3 innings he pitched represented his shortest outing since June 16.

Naturally, when skipper Joe Maddon came out to the mound with two outs in the top of the sixth and took the ball from Arrieta, who'd just allowed a two-run jack to Jason Heyward that cut the Cubs lead to 5-4, it felt like a moral victory for St. Louis. Felt like just a matter of time before they would overwhelm the Cubs bullpen and come out on top in the end.

But that's not what happened.

Instead, Adam Wainwright, pitching in relief after improbably coming back from an Achilles injury he suffered in April, gave up a two-run homer to Chicago's Jorge Soler on the very first pitch he threw in the bottom of the sixth. After the game, Wainwright was as shocked as anybody that St. Louis let the game slip away.

"We were in a good spot there," said Wainwright. "I mean obviously, you'd rather be winning, but we just came back with a crooked number to get it to a one-run game, and it's just as big a sin as a pitcher can commit to just go out there and give the team right back the runs that you just got. I hate that that happened. Can't stand that that happened."

As a result, on the same night they shocked the baseball world by humbling Arrieta, the Cardinals -- who'd been 54-0 when scoring six runs or more during the regular season -- scored six runs and lost.

As if that weren't bad enough, they also lost team leader Yadier Molina, whose regular season ended early when he tore a ligament in his left thumb on Sept. 20. The Cards catcher defied the odds by playing the first two games of the series with a splint on his thumb, but was clearly bothered on Monday and had to exit the game early.

It's the latest blow for a St. Louis squad that, as the last two games have showed, is clearly having trouble coping without it's two best starting pitchers (Wainwright and Carlos Martinez) and on Tuesday will use 36-year old John Lackey on three days' rest, the first time in a decade that he's pitched on short rest.

"Don't know yet," said manager Mike Matheny after the game when asked if Molina would be available for Game 4 on Tuesday. If not, it would put a huge dent in the Cardinals' chances of coming back. In October 2014, they lost every game they played after Molina got hurt in Game 2 of the NLCS. This year, during the regular season, they went 85-47 when Molina was their starting catcher, but just 15-15 when he wasn't.

Not that Matheny's ready to wave the white flag.

"I like our odds when our backs are against the wall," said the Cards skipper. "This is the kind of team that we've had all season long, regardless of what anybody else thinks, regardless of odds, regardless of who we're stacked up against, this team just continues to fight."

Added Wainwright: "Nobody said this was gonna be easy."

Then again, nobody said it was going to be this hard.