PHILADELPHIA — In a season that’s been a struggle so far, Aaron Nola reached new lows on Wednesday night.

The veteran right-hander allowed nine earned runs and 12 hits, both the most he’s ever given up in a single game. He surrendered three home runs and was hit hard. Nola turned in the worst outing of his 11 years in the big leagues, wasting a strong offensive night from the Phillies in a 14-7 loss to the Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park to split a doubleheader and take the defeat in a three-game series.

“I don’t really have another answer for tonight besides: terrible,” Nola said.

Nola’s 3 2/3-inning performance continued a poor start to the season as his ERA rose to 6.16 through nine starts. Outside of two games, Nola hasn’t been very productive. The velocity was not much lower than expected on Wednesday for Nola, with his four-seam fastball averaging 91.8 mph. Still, he struck out only two batters and could not avoid damage.

“He just couldn’t put people away,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Just a lot of mistakes, especially with two strikes on the hitters. He didn’t have his best command, and he kind of paid for it.”

After he allowed a run in the top of the first on a Nolan Arenado groundout, the Phillies gave Nola some cushion in the bottom of the inning with a five-run ambush of St. Louis starter Sonny Gray. Nick Castellanos blasted a double off the angled wall in left-center field, Max Kepler drove him home on a single, then J.T. Realmuto homered to left.

Nola, however, gave five runs back in the third, surrendering home runs to Lars Nootbaar and Alec Burleson as the Cardinals rallied to take the lead.

“They didn’t miss any balls over the plate tonight, and I didn’t do my job well at all,” Nola said. “The guys gave me good run support, hit the ball really well. I didn’t get it done.”

Kyle Schwarber responded with a solo laser into the right-field seats, leaving the Phillies with a decision to make for the fourth with the game tied. Thomson opted to send Nola back out. It didn’t work as he allowed a homer to Masyn Winn and loaded the bases. Reliever Tanner Banks came into the game and gave up a two-RBI single to Burleson.

Thomson had faith in Nola to get through a pocket of righty Cardinals batters in the middle of their order. Their last one in that stretch, Iván Herrera, reached base on the second St. Louis infield single of the inning. That prompted the Phillies to call for Banks to face the lefty Burleson, who added two more runs to Nola’s line.

“You can look at that a lot of different ways, I think,” Thomson said. “But that was the thought behind it. I was trying to get him through those right-handers.”

Long man Taijuan Walker entered the game out of the bullpen in the sixth inning with Philadelphia trailing 9-7 following an Alec Bohm home run in the fourth. He pitched three innings, allowing three runs (two earned) as he ran into trouble in the eighth. Winn hit an RBI single off Walker, and the Cardinals loaded the bases with one out as Brandon Marsh missed a fly to center for an error. St. Louis scored two more runs in the eighth on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly from Willson Contreras, then two others in the ninth off Carlos Hernández.

After a 2-1 win in the first game of the doubleheader, the Phillies provided plenty of offense at night, but their ineffective pitching prevented them from sweeping. Thomson said he’s still confident in Nola moving forward.

“I think he’ll find it,” Thomson said. “You gotta trust that he’s going to find it. He’s going to work at it, that’s for sure. And he’s going to figure it out.”

At some point, Nola will need to prove that he can turn his season around for an extended period. Nine starts don’t mean everything, especially when it comes to a pitcher with that type of track record. But Nola’s inability to find consistent success has been the most notable blemish for a rotation that’s built to carry the Phillies.