ST. LOUIS — While the abrupt departure of their shortstop and a decision made weeks ago leaving Florida put the Cardinals in a bind early Friday night, the player unexpectedly thrust into play as a result lifted them to a win.

Off the bench into his catcher’s gear as part of a scramble to recover when Masyn Winn experienced back spasms, Yohel Pozo ended the Cardinals’ lengthy search for runs by driving one in and scoring the other one in a 2-0 victory against Philadelphia at Busch Stadium. Pozo’s RBI double in the fifth inning snapped a scoreless game and the Cardinals’ 20-inning hunt for an earned run, and it began his three-hit game.

Pozo’s offense backed starter Andre Pallante’s excellence.

The right-hander became the first Cardinals starter this season to complete the seventh inning as he vexed the Phillies through seven scoreless. Pallante (2-0) carried the lead taken in the fifth to the eighth for setup right-hander Phil Maton, who passed it to closer Ryan Helsley. After a rocky road trip, Helsley faced the potential tying run at the plate before securing a scoreless ninth and his second save of the regular season.

The Cardinals opted not to carry a backup shortstop on their bench to begin the season, and Winn’s injury put a catcher at second for a few innings. The severity of Winn’s injury was not disclosed during the game, and his availability will determine if the Cardinals must rethink their roster after Friday’s challenge fortuitously brought Pozo into the game.

Pallante carves gem

Amid the curious lineup and musical positions started by Winn’s injury, Pallante pressed on through one of the finest starts yet for a Cardinals pitcher.

The Phillies got two runners on and both into scoring position against Pallante in the first inning, and then not much of anything at all vs. the right-hander for the remainder of his seven scoreless innings. Pallante retired 10 of the final 11 Phillies he faced. After the first inning, the only runner Pallante allowed into scoring position got there because he let them.

His error on a pickoff attempt got a runner to third.

Pallante got a groundout and a strikeout to keep the runner there.

The first Cardinals’ starter to throw more than 90 pitches in a game this season, Pallante struck out four and allowed only two hits and four baserunners total. In each of his three starts this season, Pallante has collected at least 11 groundouts. He has 36 outs — or the equivalent of 12 innings — all on the ground in three games. Pallante leaned into his fastball for more than 50% of his pitches, but he trusted in his slider.

The Phillies put as many of Pallante’s sliders in play (four) as he got swings and misses on them (four).

Winn’s back spasms forces creativity

The announcement in the press box that confirmed what so many eyes saw for themselves didn’t mean the move made sense.

At the start of the second inning, Pedro Pages trotted out to second base to ground balls.

And Winn was nowhere on the infield to be found.

At some point in the first inning — possibly as he had a jarring moment around second base — Winn experienced spasms in his lower back. Those forced him from the game, and plunged the Cardinals into getting creative with their lineup. They brought it on themselves with the current roster and Friday’s lineup The Cardinals’ lack of a backup infield option on the bench can be traced all the way back to spring training and the decision to put Jose Fermin on the bench.

Starting Brendan Donovan at designated hitter Friday further complicated the matter by leaving the Cardinals’ most versatile fielder locked into a spot assigned to hit and not take the field.

With Winn out and Thomas Saggese at shortstop, the Cardinals had to decide whether to drop the DH so Donovan could play second or — improvise.

They improvised.

Pages, a third baseman a few times in his career, took over at second. He became the first Cardinal to play catcher and second base in the same game since Tony Cruz did in July 2011. Naturally, the third out of Pages’ first inning in the field was a grounder right to him at second base. He flipped it to first for the final out and played second until the Cardinals had a lead. At that point, they gave up the DH to get Donovan’s Gold Glove at second base.

Pozo breaks scoreless drought

With Pages at second, that brought backup catcher Pozo into the game and Winn’s No. 9 spot.

Like grounders finding a new fielder, the game eventually found Pozo with a runner on and the Cardinals wheezing through an extended stretch with nary more than a run. The Cardinals entered the fifth inning having scored a single run in the previous 20 innings. That run started the inning spontaneously generated in scoring position as part of MLB’s extra inning rules, so the Cardinals had gone 20 innings without producing an earned run.

That stretch would reach 70 at-bats when Pozo came to the plate.

The Cardinals prolonged their funk despite opportunity after opportunity in the early innings against Aaron Nola. The first two batters of the second inning reached base with a single, and then the next three went down in order. Nola struck out two, and by the end of the second the Cardinals had stranded four runners and were already 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position. That would swell to 0 for 7 by the end of the third. Lars Nootbaar’s second walk and second stolen base of the game put him at second and an error moved him to third with no outs.

That’s as far as he got as the next three batters swung into outs.

The next scoring chance the Cardinals had came in the fifth – and Pozo pounced. An infield single put Saggese at first, and when Pozo dropped the double into left field, Saggese scored for the game’s first run. Pozo scored five batters later when Alec Burleson accepted a two-out, bases-loaded walk from Nola to force home a run. The Cardinals remained hitless with runners in scoring position but not without an earned run, not for the first time in 21 innings.

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