ST. LOUIS – The Cardinals lost on Sunday when their offense failed to keep the ball off the ground and they didn’t get a runner to second base until the ninth inning, falling 2-0 to the Royals to end their three-game winning streak.

However, the loss that was of more importance to the Cardinals was Gold Glove shortstop Masyn Winn leaving the game with left knee discomfort after racing to first to thwart a seventh-inning double play.

Winn, who missed the latter stages of the 2025 season following arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, sounded unbothered by the injury to his left knee following the game. He went as far as predicting that he will be back in the starting lineup on Tuesday when the Cardinals host the Pirates, but that could be a decision that is out of his hands based on his history of playing through pain.

“I almost felt like a cramp when the calf tightened up on me a little bit and they thought it was better to take me out,” said Winn, who had a single and was hit by a pitch before grounding to third base in the seventh inning. “I wanted to stay in, and they told me run and I took one step and thought that it was probably not worth it.”

Cesar Prieto, who scorched a 108.9 mph liner to right field in the ninth, replaced Winn on Sunday and could be one of the options if Winn is restricted further by the knee. Thomas Saggese, who broke out of a 0 for 30 skid Saturday, had a fifth-inning single on Sunday and would likely receive the lion’s share of reps at shortstop if Winn can’t play by Tuesday.

As for standout rookie JJ Wetherholt, who went 0 for 3 on Sunday following a day of rest, the Cardinals would prefer to keep him exclusively at second base, a spot where he has been one of the MLB’s best second basemen defensively this season.

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Winn brushed the injury off as being something that might linger in the days ahead.

“Left (knee), not the bad (surgically repaired) knee,” said Winn, who raised his batting average to .255 on Sunday. “I’ll be back in there (by Tuesday). I’ll take the rest of the day and the off day (on Monday) and hopefully better by Tuesday.”

Andre Pallante (4-4) was the hard-luck loser on Sunday when the Cardinals had just five hits, grounded into 15 outs and didn’t get a runner into scoring position until Nolan Gorman got to second in the ninth inning on defensive indifference.

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Pallante scattered eight hits while allowing just one earned run in becoming the first Cardinals starting pitcher to record an out in the seventh inning this season. Not only did he not walk batter, but he had zero three-ball accounts and struck out seven Royals.

“Obviously it would have been nice to get the win – that’s always goal No. 1 – and it would have been nice to sweep them – but a personal level I threw the ball well, attacked the zone and threw strikes,” said Pallante, who lowered his ERA to 4.04 for the season. “Even the (Salvador Perez) home run, that was an 0-0 curveball and everything I worked the whole offseason trying to execute. It was a decent pitch, but (Perez) is a guy who can do damage.”

The second-largest crowd of the season (38,051) – smaller than only Opening Day’s sellout crowd – included hundreds of bare-chested, shirt-waving fans again on Sunday. They didn’t get to see much offense from the Cardinals, but Nathan Church gave the fans a thrill when he made a diving catch of a Bobby Witt Jr. laser near the line in right field.

“You could hear the (Tarps Off fans) all game and their energy was good,” Church said. "But it’s unfortunate to get the loss today.”

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