A night after bashing five home runs and throttling the Yankees relentlessly in a wild win, the Cardinals offense careened back to earth on Tuesday largely because of two major absences.

All-Star and Home Run Derby champion Jordan Walker, who hasn’t homered since July 9 and has just four extra-base hits over his past 21 games, was originally listed in the starting lineup, but was scratched before the first pitch because of right knee inflammation.

Alec Burleson, who smashed three two-run homers in Monday’s defeat of the Yankees, was out of the starting lineup with Yankees left-hander Ryan Weathers on the mound. Burleson did pinch-hit in the eighth inning, but the Yankees took the bat out of his hands by walking him intentionally to load the bases.

Hunter Dobbins, likely a full-time starter now with Dustin May traded to the Brewers, pitched well enough to win, but that didn’t happen when the Cardinals failed to generate much offense without two of their best weapons. Solo shots by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and rookie George Lombard Jr. were all the offense the Yankees needed for a 2-0 defeat of the Cardinals at Yankee Stadium.

Lombard, the No. 1-ranked prospect in the Yankees' Minor League system, was promoted to replace the struggling Anthony Volpe. He turned a stellar double play in the second inning and homered for his first MLB hit in his big-league debut.

The Cardinals had chances to score in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, but they couldn’t push across a run against the Yankees bullpen. Jose Fermin lined out with runners at the corners in the seventh inning, and the Cards couldn’t score Nelson Velazquez in the eighth following a lead-off double. In the eighth, the Cards got the first two on and moved them into scoring position, but Ivan Herrera and Velazquez struck out on each side of Burleson’s intentional walk.

For the game, the Cardinals were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position with seven runners left on base.

Forced to play 20 games in 20 days after the break for the MLB All-Star Game, the grueling stretch finally comes to an end after Wednesday’s series finale at Yankee Stadium. Andre Pallante (11-6, 3.72 ERA) will face Will Warren (8-5, 4.14) on Wednesday before the Cardinals get a much-needed day off on Thursday.

The Cardinals will be back at Busch Stadium starting Friday when they begin a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies.

Dobbins, who has shuttled between Triple-A Memphis and St. Louis and between the starting staff and relief roles, moved into the rotation for what could be a full-time basis. As has been the case much of this season, Dobbins was ready when the opportunity was presented to him.

Dobbins limited the Yankees to four hits – but two of them happened to be solo home runs – over six-plus innings of work. Chisholm reached Dobbins in the second inning for a two-out homer, while Lombard Jr. smacked his first MLB homer with one out in the fifth inning. Both players hit hanging breaking balls for their homers – Chisholm on a curveball and Lombard Jr. on a spinning sweeper.

Dobbins was so efficient that he needed just 79 pitches to breeze through the first six innings. However, while trying to get the second out in the seventh inning that would have been a personal high for him in the big leagues, Dobbins started to fade. After striking out Chisholm to open the seventh, he surrendered a single to Ryan McMahon and he walked Lombard.

Caleb Ferguson, a seven-year MLB veteran who was acquired just before the MLB Trade Deadline, made his Cardinals debut and needed just one pitch to get former Cards MVP Paul Goldschmidt to ground into an inning-ending double play.