ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The National League's best road record has made the St. Louis Cardinals a surprise contender. Mediocre results at home keep dragging them down.

The Cardinals have dropped six of seven at 3-year-old Busch Stadium heading into a three-game series starting Tuesday against a Los Angeles Dodgers team fortified for a playoff run. The Cardinals are 31-27 at home and 31-25 on the road after coughing up an eighth-inning lead in Sunday's 5-4 loss to the Phillies.

After winning 10 of the first 12 home series, the magic has gone. Riding high after a four-game sweep of the Padres after the All-Star break, they then were swept in four by the Brewers, then took the opener but dropped a pair of 1-run decisions to the NL East-leading Phillies over the weekend.

Three straight sellouts, giving the Cardinals 29 for the year, failed to push them over the top. So the Cardinals took their first day off since playing 18 straight after the break on Monday looking less than an NL Central contender than a wild card hopeful, going 9-9 overall during that stretch.

Players believe it's just a bad stretch.

"When you've played as many games as we've played, things are going to go in cycles," said Troy Glaus, whose ninth-inning home run on his 32nd birthday off Phillies closer Brad Lidge left the Cardinals a run short on Sunday. "You're going to play well on the road and you're not going to play well at home, and vice versa."

They'll hope to counter the Dodgers and recent pickup Manny Ramirez with their version of a trade deadline pickup. Chris Carpenter, the 2005 NL Cy Young winner, makes his second start of the season Tuesday coming off reconstructive elbow surgery.

Manager Tony La Russa doesn't want to put pressure on an ace who's not yet himself. Carpenter pitched four innings in a victory at Atlanta in his season debut.

"I think he's still regaining his timing," La Russa said. "Just watch him until you figure he starts to struggle."

Struggling, the Cardinals know all about.

In the Phillies finale, the bullpen absorbed its 24th loss, tied with the Padres for most in the majors, and added to their league-leading total now at 26 blown saves. Russ Springer, ineffective in his third straight outing and fifth in seven days, was pummeled in a four-run eighth.

"It just got to be one time too many," manager Tony La Russa said. "It's my call, I'm the guy that used him."

Ryan Ludwick homered for the fourth time in eight at-bats to put the Cardinals ahead 2-0 in the fourth. But in his biggest at-bat, with the bases loaded and the Cardinals down by two in the eighth, he bounced into a double play against Ryan Madson.

Ludwick swung at a first-pitch fastball that he said was right across the plate, rather than be selective after Madson's four-pitch walk to Albert Pujols with none of the deliveries close.

"There's so many times you fail in this game that if you focus on the negatives it's only going to bring you down," Ludwick said. "That time I did a terrible job, so yeah, it's going to weigh a little bit heavy on the shoulders.

"It's not a good feeling when you feel like you've let your team down, but it happens."

La Russa is trying to accentuate the positive with a team that has its share of players unaccustomed to pennant race pressure, noting the Cardinals almost handed Lidge his first blown save of the year when they loaded the bases in the ninth. Lidge escaped by striking out rookies Nick Stavinoha and Joe Mather, leaving the Cardinals at 21-20 in a major league-high 41 one-run decisions.

"We almost pulled it off," La Russa said. "It means we're competitive, we've got a chance night in and night out."

They've got three more games at home this week to start turning it around.

"Regardless of who's on the other side, what stadium we're in, what city we're in, we need to tally wins," Glaus said. "Whether they come at home or on the road, we don't care."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)