ST. LOUIS — The Cubs were finally facing their longtime rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, nearly halfway into the season.

The Cardinals took the first matchup of the year, smacking four home runs en route to an 8-2 win at Busch Stadium. The Cubs (46-32) have dropped back-to-back games and are now 10-10 in June.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:                         

Impact of Brown’s tough day

Things started so smoothly for Ben Brown.

It fell apart quickly – and horrendously for the right-hander.

Brown faced the minimum through the first three innings – but surrendered eight runs on four home runs over the next two-plus frames. He allowed nine hits and a pair of walks with three strikeouts over five-plus innings.

Brown has a 6.13 ERA on the season after Monday’s outing.

It puts him in a precarious situation.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell announced before the game that Shota Imanaga would return from the IL and start Thursday’s series finale. That means the Cubs will have to make a roster move to create a spot for Imanaga and Brown could be the odd man out.

Brown and Sunday’s starter Colin Rea have struggled of late, but Brown’s outings — coupled with the fact that he has minor-league options — could mean he’s the odd man out.

The 24-year-old suffered an injury last season that limited him to 15 games and 74.1 innings in the big leagues and he has pitched over 100 innings just once – 104 in 2022 – in his eight professional seasons. Sending him down to the minors would allow the Cubs to control his innings and correct some of his issues, since he figures to still play a role in the majors this season.

Missed opportunity

The Cubs looked to have a golden opportunity trailing 2-0 in the top of the fifth. Pete Crow-Armstrong led the inning off with a double, scored on Carson Kelly’s single and then the Cubs loaded the bases with one out and the top of the lineup due up.

Ian Happ grounded into an inning-ending double play that stymied the rally and the chance to put a crooked number on the scoreboard.

The Cardinals offense made the Cubs rue that by crushing two two-run home runs in the bottom half of the inning and effectively putting the game away.

It’s fair for fans to be frustrated about the entire sequence, but the Cubs just didn’t create enough scoring chances in Monday’s series opener. It wasn’t that the offense broke, but Cardinals’ left-hander Matthew Liberatore was good – he struck out five, allowed six hits and walked just one over seven innings of two-run ball.

Fulmer’s debut

The Cubs added a familiar face to their bullpen prior to the series opener, selecting the contract of right-hander Michael Fulmer from Triple-A Iowa.

He was quickly inserted into the game and pitched two scoreless innings, allowing just a pair of hits. Counsell said the 32-year-old was brought in to serve as a multi-inning option and he did just that.

The Cubs are in the midst of an 11-game stretch and, coupled with the heat they faced over the weekend and in Monday’s opener, could use a fresh arm. Chris Flexen pitched 1.2 innings on Sunday and was down and Counsell was always going to avoid leverage arms Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar, Drew Pomeranz and Daniel Palencia in a blowout.

Fulmer’s two innings meant Counsell was able to save some of those arms for the rest of the series.