"Of all the things Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright has experienced in his budding career — from closing out a World Series to marathon streaks of consistency as a starter — he had little to draw on to explain Thursday's dud.

It arrived at an unusual result unusually quick.

The Toronto Blue Jays avoided an interleague sweep by seizing on a wobbly Wainwright for three runs in the first inning and all of the runs in a 5-0 victory before Wainwright got his second out of the third inning. The Cardinals' righthander completed only four innings Thursday at Rogers Centre, ending a run of 51 consecutive starts with at least five innings and leaving him uncertain what to make of an unfamiliar pothole.

"I don't know. I haven't had a whole lot of these," Wainwright said. "I don't make a habit of having any of these. ... I don't make a habit of pitching games like that. I can definitely flip a switch on that game."

While his Toronto teammates swiftly connected for five runs (four earned) on six hits against Wainwright, Blue Jays starter Brandon Morrow surgically dismantled the Cardinals' lineup. Morrow funneled the Cardinals to their seventh shutout with eight superb innings and eight strikeouts. For the seventh time this season, the Cardinals reached the final game of a three-game series with a chance to sweep — and failed to do so.

The reasons were mostly Morrow, backed by two homers by outfielder Vernon Wells off Wainwright.

"My fault," said Wainwright (10-5). "The team would have played a much different game if I had kept them in the game. But I didn't keep them in the game. You can put it on me."

In the past two seasons, Wainwright has been a model of ruthless consistency, chewing up innings and spitting out quality starts. His active streak of 22 home games with at least six innings and three or fewer earned runs is a major-league record, and only 14 times in his previous 101 starts had Wainwright allowed more than four runs. Pulled from the game before the start of the fifth inning having thrown only 75 pitches, Wainwright had his shortest outing since Sept. 13, 2008.

Wainwright felt he had good stuff.

He just made bad pitches.

Wells hit the first of his two homers on a full-count changeup, putting the Jays ahead 2-0 in the first inning. The next batter, Adam Lind, who was removed from the No. 3 spot in the lineup for the first time this season, golfed a full-count fastball over the center-field wall to add to the lead. In 164 previous appearances, including 101 as a starter, Wainwright had never allowed home runs to consecutive batters before Thursday."