ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

“It definitely happened fast,� the right-hander said.

In a blink, the five-run lead the Cardinals took into the top of the fifth vanished beneath a tempest of hits from the Kansas City Royals. It began with a fastball that leaked over the plate and then disappeared over the wall for a homer. Four singles followed, the last of which was a two-run jab to left that, like the others, slipped through defenders instead to them.

When the fifth ended, the Royals had sent 10 batters to the plate. The inning’s leadoff hitter, top prospect Jac Caglianone in his major league debut, grounded out to begin the fifth and grounded out to end it, and in between, the Royals peppered Pallante and the Cardinals for six hits, six runs and a lead they would not misplace in a 10-7 victory Wednesday night at Busch Stadium. Pallante went from retiring 13 consecutive batters in the span of 45 pitches to squandering a five-run lead in 21.

What made him so efficient to the fifth is part of what cost him in the fifth — even hard hits on the ground get by gloves, sometimes in bunches.

“Feels like that’s one of the most — I don’t want to say the first time — but probably the most obvious time where swing-and-miss came back to bite us,� manager Oliver Marmol said. “A lot of balls in play. They all found holes. And there really wasn’t an answer for it outside of (Steven) Matz’s two punch-outs or for a ball in play. Frustrating because you can’t stop the bleeding. It’s just hit after hit.

“They just literally all found either dirt or grass.�

In other words:

Live by the BABIP.

Loathe the BABIP.

BABIP, or batting average on balls in play, is a measure of just that — how well do hitters do on pitches they put in play. The metric ignores strikeouts and homers and fixates on how even the best ground-ball-getters run into games where hits get through the defense. For the Cardinals, BABIP is their game. They rank 29th of 30 teams in strikeouts per nine (7.35), just ahead of the historically atrocious Colorado Rockies. Their 19.5% strikeout rate is the fifth-lowest in the majors. Their ground-ball rate is fourth-highest at 45.2%, and no team is as efficient as the Cardinals in turning balls in play into outs because they have a lot of practice.

BABIP tends to normalize around .300. Pallante began his 12th start of the season with a .274 BABIP. A reliever, like setup man Kyle Leahy, who has a BABIP around .120 for the early part of the season is expected to see a correction. It’s a number that can only be defied for so long before it returns closer to the average — and in the past week, the taxman cometh for the Cardinals. A May debt may be due.

The Cardinals have allowed 29 runs in their past four games, and the one win in that foursome was a shutout. Pallante and Matthew Liberatore, two of the young pitchers who helped lift the Cardinals into the division race, have allowed a dozen runs in their past two starts. The Cardinals bullpen — essential to their strong May — has allowed 15 runs in 19 hits in its past 9 1/3 innings.

Some of the thinnest parts of he roster that the Cardinals were able to outrun, outhit or just flat-out catch with a superb defense through 54 games are letting through more light.

“We’re seeing a lot of that contact now fall in,� Marmol said when asked specifically about Leahy, but the description covers more ground than just the young reliever.

The beauty of BABIP is it underscores the higher value of missing bats in the modern game because, like Tuesday, hits that leak through can become rallies that erupt with an extra-base hit. Nick Loftin’s solo homer to start the scoring in the fifth inning dented but didn’t erase the Cardinals’ five-run lead. But three singles later, Bobby Witt Jr.’s single drove home twice as many as the solo homer did — and then came the damage.

Vinnie Pasquantino’s two-run double off Matz flipped the game.

BABIP is an unyielding force. A pitcher can shape it if not entirely escape it.

“I can try to put those pitches in the best possible spots where maybe they pop them up or they hit a ground ball softer, a worse launch angle so there’s a better chance of them being outs,� Pallante said. “BABIP — it’s a part of it. When I throw my sinker out over the plate, they’re able to hit it the other way. When I throw my four-seamer on the arm side, they’re able to pull it and lift it in the air. There is stuff like that that I have control over.�

A key part of any contact-coaxing starter is also pitch sequence and the mix and arrangement of pitches he uses to invite that meek contact.

In the first inning, Pallante faced Witt for the 10th time in their careers and for the ninth time in the past 14 months. That informed Pallante’s strategy as he thought of the at-bat not as the first of a game but one where Witt had already seen several pitches.

Pallante challenged him with a 94.7 mph fastball.

Witt ambushed him for a two-run homer and an early 2-0 lead.

“I guessed wrong,� Pallante said.

Three consecutive groundouts ended the first. Two more groundouts finished the second. No Royal got the ball out of the infield in the third, and in the fourth, Pallante authored his third consecutive perfect inning. Five pitches into the game, he trailed 2-0. On the next 44 pitches, he got 12 outs, and the Cardinals rallied around Nolan Gorman’s game-tying homer and Willson Contreras’ 500th career RBI for a 7-2 lead.

What unraveled next is what Pallante must explore as teams see him again and again.

“Am I being predictable?� Pallante said. “This is my second time being a starter in the big leagues now. How are they approaching me? I’ve faced them now four times in the past year. Am I pitching them in the same patterns?�

As the fifth inning rolled into an avalanche of runs, Marmol opted to have Pallante face Witt for a third time in the game. The bases were loaded, and Pallante would slip into a full count against this past season’s American League MVP runner-up to Aaron Judge. Witt scalded a 105.9 mph single through the defense for his third and fourth RBIs.

There was, however, more to the decision than the matchup. With 13 games in 13 days, the Cardinals did not want to plunge into their bullpen in the fifth inning when the starter had only thrown around 55 pitches. That would be a choice that might stop the Royals in the moment but cost the Cardinals in several games going forward.

The bullpen’s depth has already been tested, and two relievers who had pivotal roles in the Cardinals’ strong May — Leahy and Matz — have had recent hiccups. Leahy has allowed six runs on 11 hits in his past five innings.

BABIP happens.

“We’ve seen it before,� Marmol said, pivoting back to commenting on Pallante’s start and seven runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. “What else would you ask the guy to do, right? He has to do what gives him success. He was in the zone. He was not walking people. He’s pitching to contact. The mix could have been a little different. At the end of the day — found holes.�