This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK -- Even in the face of their most heart-breaking loss of the young season -- a 4-2 defeat to the Mets in which they were one strike from winning twice in the 11th inning -- the Cardinals left Citi Field on Sunday never feeling better about the depth and firepower they have in their reimagined bullpen.

St. Louis lost when former Cardinal Harrison Bader hit an 0-2 fastball from Matthew Liberatore into center field to tie the game at 2. Then, on Liberatore’s 38th pitch over three otherwise excellent innings of work, Mark Vientos drove an elevated sinker over the center-field fence for a walk-off homer that prevented the Cards from sweeping the Mets in Queens.

Even with the subsequent bitterness that came from seeing his team’s potential fourth straight victory slip away, manager Oliver Marmol had nothing but praise for a shorthanded Cardinals bullpen that got Sunday’s game to the 11th despite the three-headed monster of JoJo Romero, Andrew Kittredge and Ryan Helsley not being available. That trio had been brilliant in the first two games of the series, giving St. Louis 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief on Friday and three more clean innings on Saturday, striking out eight while allowing just five baserunners over those 6 1/3 frames.

Even after suffering Sunday’s painful loss, the Cardinals were encouraged by a bullpen that got two scoreless innings from rookie sensation Ryan Fernandez, two-thirds of an inning of work out of Giovanny Gallegos and three innings of relief from Liberatore.

“We definitely have depth down there. We trust all those guys, and today was a perfect example of that,” Marmol said. “Not having JoJo, Helsley and Kittredge and still being able to take the game into extra innings with the score being what it was, those guys have done a really nice job. [Liberatore] should be proud of his day. I know that they walked it off, but he had three innings of good work.”

While much was made of the Cardinals signing three starting pitchers in the offseason, how they fortified the bullpen has been almost as impactful. Kittredge, an All-Star in 2021 with the Rays, has been one of the team’s top performers by compiling an 0.75 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 13 outings (12 innings). Romero, who is tied for the MLB lead in holds with Kittredge (10), has provided some swagger and allowed just two runs in 14 games (14 1/3 innings).

Then, there’s Helsley, who has shown that the Cardinals are a different caliber team when he’s healthy. Helsley has saved nine games and won two more, meaning he’s played a major role in 11 of the team’s 13 wins. Helsley has also stacked up 17 strikeouts against two walks. Marmol and pitching coach Dusty Blake hatched a plan over the offseason to limit Helsley’s appearances to one inning -- something they hoped would make the fireballing closer available more often.

Whereas momentum is often thought of in terms of offense, there’s a distinct feel of building momentum in Cards games when Romero is tossing scoreless innings and passing the ball to Kittredge, who is doing the same to get the ball to Helsley. The Mets were overwhelmed by that momentum in the first two games of the weekend series, when the Cardinals’ bullpen ended games after the sixth inning.

“There’s a lot of guys in our bullpen who have pitched in big situations, and we have a pretty versatile ‘pen,” Helsley said. “Our guys have pitched well so far and hopefully we can keep that momentum rolling.”

The biggest revelation has been Fernandez, who was plucked out of the Red Sox's system by the Cards in December’s Rule 5 Draft. After working out of a two-on, no-outs jam in Sunday’s sixth inning and setting the Mets down in the seventh, Fernandez lowered his ERA to 2.45 over 11 innings. Fernandez’s sinker has shown the enhanced vertical break it featured in the Minors in 2022, and it has helped his strikeout rate climb to 31.6 percent (top 12 percent in MLB).

As good as the Cardinals’ bullpen has been, that unit is still hopeful of getting Keynan Middleton and Riley O’Brien back in the coming weeks after both suffered right flexor tendon strains in March. Middleton was expected to be a big piece of the bullpen after starring for the Yankees in 2023, while O’Brien was dominant throughout Spring Training.

Put it all together, and Marmol thinks the Cards’ bullpen can be the best in baseball.

“The way they should look at it is if we have a lead and that ball gets handed to the bullpen, then that game is over,” Marmol said. “They’ve done a good job of doing exactly that so far.”