Benjamin Hochman St. Louis Post-dispatch

“I wasn’t a great big leaguer here,” said Mayers, who allowed nine runs in 1 1/3 innings of his major league debut, a 2016 start against the Dodgers on national TV.

In St. Louis, baseball is a community. And Rick Hummel, the legendary Post-Dispatch scribe who passed away at 77, was a mainstay, a major player.

St. Louis has won four consecutive series — and its next four series are against three teams under .500 and one right around it.

“He's been like a brother,” said Arenado, who is 32 and was born 32 days after Trayce Thompson. “And I love his family. His mom’s like a second mom to me.”

Lars Nootbaar entered Wednesday with a 19.4% walk rate, second in the entire National League to just Juan Soto.

“I mean, it's crazy, obviously,” said Chantal Tkachuk, Matthew’s mother, of the classmates becoming stars in the NBA and NHL. “And just, I think, really cool for St. Louis.”

I’ve never been more frustrated with Jack Flaherty — both how he’s pitching and how he handled himself after the last start.

For how much Nolan Arenado's excellence was part of the Cardinals winning last year, that’s how much his dormant start has been part of losing this season.

The Cardinals are 10-24. So I spent the day in Edwardsville, where I watched some youth games to recharge my spirits, replenish my soul and reassure myself that there is, indeed, joy in baseball.

The 2023 Cards are 10-21.That’s on pace for 52-110.No, the Cardinals won’t be that bad.But at this point, it’s really hard to believe they’ll be good enough to play in October.

“We're talking about a superstar on both sides of it,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “To do what he does on both sides of the baseball, it's an understatement to say that it's extremely impressive.”

The Cardinals stink. They’re 10-19, they entered Monday 10 games out of first place and their longest winning streak is two games.