The Latest Breaking News from Tommy Edman

ST. LOUIS — The Chicago Cubs hit town for the first time this season, having lost 14 of their previous 17 games since the Cardinals were at Wrigley Field in June. But the Cubs also hit town with soft-tossing right-hander Kyle Hendricks, against whom the Cardinals had a similar career…

MILWAUKEE — A June series that pitted the two remaining teams vying for the NL Central title and started with both teams sporting the same record became a showcase of their bullpens.

CHICAGO — Before the Cardinals could capitalize on the generosity of the rulebook in extra innings and the rolling production of their rookies, they first had to get outs.

CHICAGO — Before things really tilted toward Wrigley Weird — trademark pending — the Cardinals got just enough from two pitchers in their first starts of the season to make it possible, when they had a lead, to deploy the bullpen exactly as designed.

CHICAGO — The Cardinals went into the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader hoping right-hander Johan Oviedo could give them his best for 100 pitches, not thinking that one of the worst calls would help take the game from them.

A sacrifice fly became just the latest example of the 42-year-old slugger making the most out of his final season in baseball.

ST. LOUIS — As Cardinals linchpins Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina march inexorably toward the all-time record for starts made by one major league battery, Paul Goldschmidt marches to. . . . well, we don’t exactly know yet.

As Nolan Gorman described pitch-by-pitch an at-bat from Monday, a phrase kept popping up.

In manager Oliver Marmol’s perfect world, left-hander Packy Naughton and Andre Pallante, the relievers who were the first two hurlers for the Cardinals in Monday afternoon’s “bullpen game,” would have pitched the first six innings. The final three would belong to late-inning stalwarts Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera and Ryan Helsley.