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BOSTON — When Ivan Herrera returned to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ on Monday for additional exams and testing on his injured left knee, the catcher left behind a Cardinals club bruised, battered, and strained — and also seeking an encouraging diagnosis and short-term recovery.

A misspent weekend at Fenway Park ended late Sunday night with an 18-7 drubbing by the Boston Red Sox that completed a doubleheader sweep and series sweep all while leaving the Cardinals’ pitching staff worn and their catcher and leading hitter headed to the injured list. The Cardinals were set to begin a series Monday night in Pittsburgh having lost five of their past six games, and now their bullpen is tenderized by three extra-inning games, a doubleheader and innings left unmanned by the rotation. The relievers pitched 60% of the innings in Boston.

The word manager Oliver Marmol used to describe what happened in Miles Mikolas’ abbreviated, mangled start Sunday could apply to the Cardinals’ current concerns.

Things have “snowballed.�

The Cardinals left Fenway for their flight to Pittsburgh encouraged by the initial exams of Herrera’s knee. The catcher and team-leader in homers needed help walking off the field Sunday afternoon because of shooting pain in his left knee and his hesitance to put any weight on it. An MRI taken in Boston did not reveal any structure damage, Marmol said. Herrera was able to walk around the clubhouse within an hour of the exam, and he said later he could walk and squat with minimal discomfort.

“I’ll be back soon,� he said.

The Cardinals will put Herrera on the 10-day injured list Monday and promote catcher Yohel Pozo from Class AAA Memphis. A corresponding move will be necessary to open a spot on the 40-player roster so that Pozo can be active for Monday night’s game at PNC Park. Herrera will return to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ for another battery of exams and a meeting with the Cardinals’ team physicians to review results of the MRI in Boston and explore potential root causes for the inflammation and pain.

Herrera felt his knee grab on him when running first to third during the third inning of the doubleheader’s afternoon game.

He asked for help off the field out of caution.

“The way he came off the field, I had no idea what it was going to look like,� Marmol said. “The fact that there’s no tear, that’s a good thing. Really good news.�

Herrera’s replacement in Game 1 and the Cardinals’ catcher for all of Game 2, Pedro Pages came off the bench to hit two doubles and deliver a two-run lead that the Cardinals took into the ninth inning of the first game. Then the day went sideways before it got even worse. Closer Ryan Helsley blew the save by walking four batters. The Cardinals, having already lost two extra-inning games this past week, lost a third, 5-4, in the 10th.

Helsley threw 37 pitches in his first blown save of the season, and that left him unavailable for the evening game and perhaps Monday, too.

Long reliever Steven Matz was also unavailable because of pitching three innings Friday.

Kyle Leahy pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief in the first game of the doubleheader, and Chris Roycroft pitched 1 2/3 innings in the evening game. Marmol said the team would not need to refresh the bullpen ahead of the series in Pittsburgh, but all of that use was already starting to compound on the bullpen.

They allowed 19 runs in the three-game series at Fenway.

They could have used a break and Mikolas, the team’s veteran innings eater, had that in mind when he began the night game of the doubleheader.

“Trying to fill it up and be efficient,� Mikolas said. “Try to get as deep into that game as possible. A couple of long at-bats. They’re fouling off pitches. Didn’t do what I set out to do, that’s for sure. The goal is to try and get as deep into that game as possible, and I didn’t do it.�

Of the first nine Red Sox to face Mikolas in the game, six got a hit, and three ultimately scored. Boston bombarded Mikolas with a five-run second inning that included back-to-back doubles from Alex Bregman and Wilyer Abreu. Six of the eight outs that Mikolas collected in the game came from three batters. The rest of the Red Sox lineup rampaged. By the end of the second inning, Mikolas needed 41 pitches to get through nine batters. He allowed three extra-base hits and what had been a 1-0 lead for the Cardinals slipped away into a 6-1 deficit.

Mikolas did not finish the third inning, though the two runners he left behind scored when Bregman welcomed Gordon Graceffo to the game with a three-run homer. Nine of the Red Sox’s 18 runs came on 11 hits in 2 2/3 innings against Mikolas (0-1).

“If the contact is not at people, it snowballs pretty quickly,� Marmol said.

“I made some good pitches. I made some bad pitches. It didn’t seem to matter,� Mikolas said. “They’ve got some hot bats over there. Sometimes there’s not much you can do. Hope I don’t have any more of these. This is one I’m probably just going to forget about it completely. Toss it aside. Wake up, start getting ready for my next start. Hakuna matata. Keep on rolling.�

The catch with that is the downstream impact long games and short outings have.

Graceffo alleviated some of the stress on the bullpen by pitching three innings. As the Cardinals’ 27th player for the doubleheader, he’ll return to Class AAA Memphis having provided the bullpen nine outs of relief. He allowed seven runs on nine hits as he did it.

That did thrust more relievers into the night game than preferred ahead of the Cardinals’ first National League Central division series of the season. But Marmol also acknowledged that he made a choice to use a reliever for an additional inning as well. As the Cardinals straddle that fence between maybe contending in a friendly division and definitely pledging to focus on development, there will be decisions like Sunday’s to have Roycroft go out for a second inning.

Like Ryan Fernandez on Friday as that game slipped away, the Cardinals wanted to get Roycroft game action to practice an adjustment to his posture on the mound and see how it helped his sinker. Roycroft wanted game-speed feedback on adjustments.

“The more we do that, we’re going to get better every day,� Marmol said. “Two weeks, a month, 60 days — and you look back, you’ll see some real big gains.�

Marmol said it was important that Roycroft finish his outing in fewer than 25 pitches so that he would be available in Pittsburgh. Matz was relieved after three so that he did not have to miss the entirety of the Pittsburgh series. Marmol listed JoJo Romero, Phil Maton and Fernandez as also likely to be available as soon as Monday, if needed.

The season that began with 3-0 buoyancy already is starting to show wear. The Cardinals escape Boston with Nolan Gorman (hamstring) and Herrera (knee) on the injured list.

The bullpen pitched 15 1/3 innings to the rotation’s 10.

The pitching staff allowed 36 runs in 27 1/3 innings.

Boston had 46 hits and 66 baserunners in three games.

The Cardinals set the National League record with at least 10 hits in nine consecutive games to start a season, breaking a tie with the 1961 Pirates. And still they were outscored at Fenway by 16 runs.

The way Roycroft described his need for a second inning is a fitting description for where the Cardinals are needing innings going into Pittsburgh.

“It’s one of those things where you get kicked in the mouth and you get punched in the face,� Roycroft said. “And it’s so easy to sit back and work on things, but sometimes you have to get thrown back in the fire and see what you’re made of.�