ST. LOUIS — After struggling in his Cardinals debut, starter Erick Fedde admitted that the moment got big for him when things went sideways. Fedde made sure it wasn’t too big for him in start number two.

With runners on the corners and no one out in the third against the Rays on Wednesday, Fedde fielded Brandon Lowe’s bouncer back to him. Instead of throwing home for what looked to be a sure out of Alex Jackson, Fedde threw to second to try and get a double play. It ended up being a forceout and the run scored, but instead of letting the play snowball, Fedde escaped the inning allowing only that one run.

“I think that’s the most important thing about being a pitcher is limiting big innings,” Fedde said. “My last start, I wasn’t able to do that, but today, did a much better job.”

Catcher Willson Contreras came out after the Lowe force play to help Fedde reset.

“Just one of those things where before, I was thinking catcher on third and maybe wouldn’t be going home, but they wanted to stay out of the double play,” Fedde said. “Just kind of a mistake by me, but one to learn from and at least it didn’t lead to a big inning.”

Fedde (8-5) found his groove from there, and the Cardinals bats picked him up for a 5-2 win. Fedde retired eight of the last nine batters he faced in a five-inning outing. He allowed one run on four hits, struck out six and walked two.

“This is a guy that, even through traffic, figures out a way to kind of limit damage,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “And that’s exactly what he did.”

Fedde worked around a leadoff double followed by a walk in the second. He needed 75 pitches to get through the first three innings, but just 18 in his final two.

“Willson made a great adjustment with me, on getting his glove a little higher and getting my sweeper to play a little more away than down,” Fedde said. “And I think it started to get more swings earlier in the count and get swing and miss.”

With the game tied at 1, Nolan Arenado’s two-run double in the bottom of the third gave St. Louis the lead and Alec Burleson’s two-run double in the fourth made it 5-1 Cardinals. Contreras started the scoring with an RBI single in the first.

Arenado said regaining the lead immediately after Fedde limited the damage in the third was huge.

“It’s all about momentum,” Arenado said. “And just knowing that we’re in that ball game, and it didn’t get out of hand. And a team like the Rays, you can’t let it get out of hand with the pitching that they have, so he did a great job.”

The hits helped the Cardinals snap a runners in scoring position drought. St. Louis entered the game hitting .079 (3-for-38) in August in those key spots.

Contreras’ single in the first snapped an 0-for-19 skid with runners in scoring position and plated the Cardinals’ first run without coming from a homer in 28 innings.

“I liked our approach today a lot,” Marmol said. “We had some really hard contact, some for hits, some right at people, but I felt like we were aggressive in the zone, and I just like the overall feel of what we saw today. One through nine, I felt like our guys came out swinging hard, under control, but making solid contact through the middle of the field.”

St. Louis finished 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

“It’s been real frustrating,” Arenado said. “You know me, I always take an ownership of that, of wanting to be better there, but we just got to keep pushing. I don’t have the answers for it, but you got to keep hitting the ball hard.”

Fedde wasn’t the only escape artist for the Cardinals. Ryan Fernandez allowed just one run after pitching out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the sixth.

Ryan Helsley, after giving up a run the night before, needed just 15 pitches to secure his MLB best 36th save.

“You always want to do that with relievers,” Marmol said. “Anytime they struggle through an inning, getting them out there and not letting them sit too long in the ‘pen, thinking about it, is a plus.”